The Reality of the Future: Redefining Interactivity and Ubiquitous Computing

Kristin Lindebrekke // November 27th, 2002

 

In recent years, the fields of art and entertainment have been influenced strongly by the significant increase in computer utilization. What were once thought of as cutting-edge technologies, such as interactive websites, special effects, and virtual reality, are now commonly accepted as forms of digital media. While there is still much work to be done in the improvement of these existing technologies, the ideas behind them are no longer revolutionary. Almost everyone has visited a website, has seen a major motion picture with partial or full computer animation, or has seen a demonstration of a virtual reality system on the news or even at an amusement park. In order to move forward with the development of digital media, one must progress beyond the technologies that have already been accepted into mass culture, and focus on creating new ideas for the future. These ideas may be created out of bits of existing knowledge, but ultimately the ideas should take priority over the availability of technology. The resources available should not limit the inventor, for the realization of ideas is often the reason for new technology to be invented.

With this in mind, to make progress in the field of digital media, one must examine what has already been done, and why. Nearly all of the ideas that have been successful are either more efficient ways of doing something that currently exists, or they are technologies that bring a new level of interactivity to the user. Computers are windows into the world of interactivity, the capabilities they provide can aid in the creation of new realities, and the internet is a powerful tool that should be used as a means of gathering feedback on projects, and as a way of creating reflective artwork based on many users interactions with eachother and with the foundations that are given to them. In predetermined art, the viewers have no freedom to decide what happens, and thus no way of drawing conclusions based on their interaction with the work. Instead, they must try to find meaning only in what is given to them. The reduced level of interactivity makes it harder for the viewer to relate to the piece, since they are not necessarily experiencing or taking part in it. As Grahame Weinbren points out in his essay “The Digital Revolution is a Revolution of Random Access,” “in the edit is the language, the meaning, the music, the emotion, the expressivity of the medium.” Editing consists of changing, reworking and adapting. In the context of digital media, editing parallels interactivity; the viewer is able to change the art based on his or her interactions with it. Jenny Holzer’s “Please Change Beliefs” demonstrates how the internet may be used as a means of collaborative editing. She presents the viewers with a predetermined set of sayings or “beliefs” and asks them to change the text of the sayings, or to provide their own, and then vote on their favorites, thereby creating an extensive list of new sayings that may or may not make sense. Another example of online interactivity and editing may be found in “fingertracks,” a multi-part project that is part of Yugo Nakamura’s MONO*crafts . “Fingertracks” is a series of interactive works that revolve around the keyboard or mouse trails left by viewers. Some of the parts to the project are based around an individual user, while others allow for interaction between many online users. The users may see the patterns they are all currently making, and the individual users are able to record their “tracks” on the page, with an optional user name. Other parts of the project include a series of users being connected by lines that move with the tracks the users are making. This creates an array of geometrical shapes that are unlikely to ever be exactly the same. Yet another part of “fingertracks” allows for users to “battle” eachother with their tracks; two users are connected by a movable line and pitted against eachother, only able to “attack” and “dodge” by moving the interface device. Nakamura’s “fingertracks” is considerable not only for its simplistic beauty, but also for its psychological aspects (in the way people choose to explore websites) and for its focus on interactivity with the original framework of the project and with other users. MONO*crafts is a good example of where the future of digital media should be headed. Non-participatory and single user forms of web art are no longer groundbreaking. They still may be effective in some cases, but there is a more promising future in collaboration and interaction with others, and there should be a focus more on ideas instead of technical expertise. As Nakamura himself says, “I am not particularly interested in using flash to create cool motion graphics. What I do want to create is a unique communication experience, or interface environment, a reactive field. MONO*crafts was my attempt to fuse diverse elements organically into a single interface world.”

The shift from a presentational to an interactive system of representation is an important key in understanding what the future of digital media may hold. This shift is comparable to the shift in cinema explored by Lev Manovich in his book The Language of New Media. Early cinema was primarily presentational in the sense that the actors played to the viewer as if the viewer were part of a direct audience. As time passed and the techniques and use of film developed, the viewer was shifted to being inside the narrative. The viewer is now asked to interact with and relate to the characters in the film, and to accept what they are viewing as a temporary reality. A similar shift may be expected in the world of digital media. The shift has already started with a greater focus on interactive web art and a blending of “reality” with virtual worlds. For example, virtual reality blends the realism of the viewers’ senses with a nonexistent world, while computer animation in film blends parts of a nonexistent reality with a temporary reality. With computer animation and special effects in film, we are creating a believable reality composed of actual and fabricated footage in a representational space. If the future of technology and digital media revolves around interactivity and the concepts of real and figurative space, it follows that the next logical step would be to carry over the idea of temporary realities to existing physical spaces. This may be achieved by constructing rooms and landscapes that incorporate both what is physically real, and what may be perceived as real. Three dimensional digital projections or virtual objects that one might see with the aid of a PDA, laptop, cell phone, goggles, or some other peripheral device may be integrated with physical environments in order to create a coherent, navigable space where the two realities coexist. Essentially, this new form of ubiquitous computing would blur the lines between the computer interface and the real world, and it would provide an inverse to virtual reality. Instead of realism in a fabricated space, this potential direction for digital media would fabricate reality in existing physical spaces.

This possibility for the future of digital media has already started to be explored through many projects. One of the many is Diane Gromala’s “Living Book of the Senses,” a project incorporating projections of three-dimensional virtual realities with actual physical environments. The user is able to explore real environments while interacting with virtual characters as seen through a headset, or real people acting as virtual characters over an integrated network. The project also allows for an interactive narrative based on the choices the user makes in exploring, and based on vocal and physical commands. This is the direction mainstream digital media will most likely be headed towards. Not only is the idea of physical interaction with real and virtual worlds fun and engaging, but it may also be used for practical applications in everyday life, such as representational traveling, meeting with coworkers, friends and family, or a new means of interactive shopping, all without the necessity of sitting in front of a computer. These ideas would require a new version of ubiquitous computing, that would include a minimum of computer equipment and peripherals. The computer would be an invisible member helping human interaction in the physical world, instead of what we have currently with online, humans invisibly interacting with eachother in a virtual world.