Strategies for Influential Interactivity in the Physical Domain

The proliferation and accessibility of technological tools have facilitated the emergence of innovative, creative practices that blur the boundaries between conventional design and art fields. At the crux of these practices lies the notion of interactivity, which has become ubiquitous in both theory and practice over the last half-century. Nevertheless, the frequent and indiscriminate usage of the term 'interactive' without well-defined parameters and pragmatic implementations has made me scrutinize the significance of interactivity and the authentic essence of interactive experiences. Despite several decades of development in interactive arts and design there remains a pressing need to focus more intently on the affective and cognitive impacts these systems engender. The discourse surrounding design and media arts must give greater weight to the roles of cognitive and emotional factors, as they fundamentally shape our perceptions, reactions to reality, and our processing of information on both emotional and intellectual levels. This thesis seeks to contribute to this critical emphasis by exploring the creative possibilities of interactivity beyond the mere construction of feedback loops with technology, thus transcending superficial fashionable approaches. In this thesis, crucial factors contributing to the formulation of efficacious interactive strategies are discerned through an analysis of influential interactivity disintegration, an investigation of the philosophical underpinnings of emergence, and a synthesis of multi-sensory experience extensions. By probing the complexities of components within both the interactants and the interactive system, the thesis advocates an open-ended, exploratory approach to making. This is accomplished by examining the interconnected nature of sensory modalities encompassing memories, social cues, and emotions while concurrently addressing technology's inherent limitations as an instrument for crafting interactive experiences.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Mun, Reina Suyeon

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Urbonas, Gediminas

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151328

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/151328