At last Tuesday’s lecture with Chris Hales, Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Interactive Film at SMARTlab, we explored the idea of interactive cinema and the interactive film narrative. Analysis of audience response to many of these films formed part of his practice-based PhD ‘Rethinking the Interactive Movie’ (2006). Chris also explores the wider historical context of interactive cinema which dates back to the Kinoautomat of 1967.

Using the movie as the interface, Chris showed us some of his works including the very amusing, slapstick inspired ‘Jinxed’ which utilizes an effect for hot spots in the movie eg a slight bulge appears on the protagonist’s nose or the slippery soap, and if the user clicks on the bulge, some rather unfortunate event is triggered. Another piece, ‘12 loveliest things I know’, based on interviews with children, explores more subtle ways of linking. Chris wanted to test whether colour and movement of the objects could hint at how to proceed to the next clips. Small movements as triggers for small events and sensations are also used in his landscape pieces Sketchbook and kesä.

I found the playful element and reaction of people in the room really interesting.  These somewhat ‘unsophisticated’ show reels produced by a one man band in Director and After Effects were triggering reactions and laughter within our group and engaging people. With a keen interest in experience and emotion around digital technology whilst thinking about possible research topics for my MA, this lecture whet my appetite to explore the concepts behind interactivity further.

What do we mean by interaction design? What makes for a good user experience? How can we better that experience or make it more accessible to people with disabilities for example? How can we use the digital environment and technology advantageously and perhaps therapeutically? Although innovative technologies have provided substantial benefits to society today, there are still a large number of people who cannot enjoy them due to the lack of accessibility features.

I’m really encouraged and inspired by some of the projects at SMARTlab including InterFACES which utilises assistive technology.  InterFACES includes projects that look at tools for tracking eye movement as a control mechanism for communications by people with little or no other voluntary muscle movement. This imaginative use of technology has allowed James Brosnan, journalist and music fanatic, to use his laptop to jam with musicians, despite having cerebral palsy and being in a wheelchair.

I’m also still inspired by Martha Lane Fox, Digital Tzar, who spoke at Lucky Voice In Brighton a few weeks ago and the importance of bringing digital media to socially disadvantaged groups with the Race Online 2012 Campaign. Teaching has made me particularly aware of people who frankly find technology intimidating. My approach to teaching is encouraging experimentation and play which seems to frighten people at first! As a passionate advocate of technology and digital media, the importance of user centered design and and good HCI to encourage this experimentation and curiosity, I believe should be high on the list of any designer or developer working in digital media.

Following on from these ideas, another blog I have come across today is Andy Polaine’s, Playpen. Andy Polaine co-founded the award-winning new-media collective Antirom and his interests include play, interactivity and interaction design, experience and service design, creative processes and collaboration, online teaching and learning and emerging cultural technologies. He spoke at last years Flash on the Beach in Brighton about play and the interactive experience:

Over the past few years play has become a common theme in designers’ presentations. It’s no wonder – play is a pre-verbal, powerful and universal activity and is our starting point for interacting with the world around us. Play can lead to some of the most pleasurable and intuitive interactive experiences. With a plethora of interactions demanding our attention, the playful ones are the ones that will survive. It’s not for nothing that the iPhone’s icons do a little jiggle dance, after all.But why does play feel so natural and intuitive and how can we use it in interaction design? What is play and why is it so hard to pin down?

These ideas took me back to the Decode exhibition at the V&A (see my Decode blog) as well as the myriad of websites whose purpose serve no real function but allow people to simply explore, experiment and perhaps be inspired. Polaine’s blog led me to the magneticNORTH website – a fun portfolio website with a playful interface. I’ve been admittedly bah humbug about this sort of interaction design but found this website mildly additive. I shall now return to my Flash project with renewed enthusiasm.