Work for comparison:
The interactive artwork installation that I will be comparing the Interactive Fairy Tale to is the Handsight project. The Handsight project was created by the artist Agnes Hegedus in 1990. This work consists of a dark room with a projection placed on the wall. Located in the middle of the room is a transparent bowl and beside the bowl is a hand held eye. When the hand held eye is placed within the bowl the user us able to move the eye to view around the virtual environment projected on the wall. This project is meant to create a link between the physical world and the virtual world as told by a Handsight summary. Quote from
The work creates a correlation of the physical world and the virtual world
(http://framework.v2.nl/archive/archive/leaf/other/.xslt/nodenr-155831)
The reason I have chosen this particular work is because it explores the concept of virtual environments and also creates a different form of interaction from the typical screen/keyboard/mouse style interaction. This work is also immersing in the respect that the user has control of where they are looking within the world which is a similar aspect to what we are looking for in the Interactive Fairy Tale. Handsight also has the potential to be extended beyond this interaction which in term gives ideas on how to improve our project.
Project Links:
http://framework.v2.nl/archive/archive/node/work/.xslt/nodenr-146808
http://framework.v2.nl/archive/archive/leaf/other/.xslt/nodenr-155831
http://csw.art.pl/new/99/7e_agndl.html#g
Conceptual focus:
The conceptual focus for both the Fairytale and Anges Hegudus’s project are similar in some respects. The conceptual focus for the Handsight project is to create a link between the physical world and virtual world as told above, as well as the eyeball being a metaphor for perception as told below.
The artist’s conception began with the interface or “eyeball” in virtual space as a metaphor for perception
Quote from
http://csw.art.pl/new/99/7e_agndl.html#g
The eyeball is used effectivly to portray this concept especially when the user gets a first hand experience of this. The conceptual focus for the Interactive Fairytale is creating an immersing virtual environment for children as well as evaluating whether this form of interaction can be as engaging as other interactions such as conventional gaming. These concepts are similar in the regard that to create a link between the physical and virtual world there needs to be a way to interact with the environment to make the user feel they are apart of the world to make it immersing. The way Handsight shows the interaction between the physical and the virtual is by placing the eye in the bowl and moving it around to view the world, and our project involves capturing the movement of the user to manipulate the events of the story (for a completed prototype), while touch pads will be used for our concept design. Both of which are similar as they both require the user to take an action to change the virtual environment. The differences between our conceptual focuses include that we are targeting a specific age group, being that of children, while Handsight focus’s on a general audience which can change the interactions and the outcome of a piece of work. One of the other differences is our project is focusing more on making the environment as immersing as possible while Handsight is more on showing how the two worlds can link.
The exploration of seeing whether interacting with our project can be as engaging as more common forms of interaction is to try and open children’s eyes to different kinds of interaction and to explore whether they can find this type of interaction more interesting than computer games for example.. But primarily making the world an immersing as possible is the goal of our project. The concept in Handsight of the eye being a metaphor for perception is seen by the user as the eye’s movement within the bowl shows a change in the perception of the world. Both of these projects concepts all relate to the exploration of virtual environments in an artistic frame of mind.
Audience experience:
The audience experience for Handsight is focused towards the guiding of the eye through an environment as told by a work edited by Simon Penny
in Handsight, the body leads the helpless eye about the virtual space
http://ace.uci.edu/penny/texts/consumerculture.htm
Which can be found in the following:
Consumer culture and the technological imperative: The artist in dataspace (1995). (1995). In S. Perry (Ed.), Critical Issues in Electronic Media. New York: State University of New York Press.
The user of Handsight would get the experience that they are leading the eye, as it is the movement of the eye that change the virtual environment, that interaction is shown below.
http://csw.art.pl/new/99/7e_agndl.html#g
As is shown the eye is moved around the bowl which changes the projection. The experience users have in Handsight is to do with having control of a virtual world this leads to the user becoming immersed in a world they haven’t explored before. Handsight’s user experience is similar to the experience we are trying to create with the Interactive Fairytale. The user experience we want to get across is a complete immersion. The more the user feels they are apart of the environment the better. Both of these experiences are similar in the respect that for the user is required to take control and explore the virtual world, both also require the user to be moving and involved to be immersed.
Where these two projects defer is in the immersing factor. While Handsight is immersing in the user exploring the world, the interactive fairytale is immersing through the on screen interactions which tell the story of little red riding hood which is familiar to children. Because the story is familiar it gives the opportunity to play with the story and give the children a new experience, the sound, imagery and the theming of the space are also important to keep a child’s attention.
Underlying technology:
Some of the underlying technology between the our project and Handsight are similar as they both use a form of motion tracking to navigate the environment. Handsight tracks where the eye is using a Polhemus sensor. While the fairytale tracks whether movement passes over a specific area using web cam technology. The fairytale uses a similar idea to the interactive artwork Animated Gestures by Camille Utterback which users a camera to track movement.
When a viewer enters the designated area in front of the projection screen, her shape is captured by an overhead camera, which communicates the information to a computer program
Quote from
http://www.artinteractive.org/shows/animated_gestures/index.php
Another aspect that shares similar features is the use of a program that deals with the real time interpretting of the users movements as explored below from a description of the project Handsight.
Hand motions are translated instantly (i.e. in “real time”) into a moving-point-of-view like an “endoscopic eye,”
Quote from
http://csw.art.pl/new/99/7e_agndl.html#g
Both Handsight and the Interactive Fairytale use a program to manage the interpretation of the movement. Both of these works need to find out where the user wants to go for the interaction to be successful.Handsight and the Interactive Fairytale both use projection to get the image translated to a wall. A main differences in these projects are that the Fairytale introduces surround sound to the equation to add to how immersing the project is, while Handsight doesn’t have a reliance on sound.
Inspiration and Extension:
Handsight gave me inspiration in idea generation as I liked the concept of the user being able to manipulate a world without using a typical interaction. What also extended the concept ideas was thinking about what could make a better user experience which lead to user immersion, which in term created the possible inclusion of surround sound and theming the scene. Building upon the idea of Handsight lead to the possibilities of a different world where children could be immersed by not only the interaction but a feeling they were within a new world. By creating an environment around the children they are able to see a different possibility in where technology is going. The user is circled by sound, tree’s and leaves to make them think they are within the little red riding hood story, they also have choices on where to go and what to do. Immersion for children is the key.
Handsight provided an insight into the world of virtual environments. What Agnes Hegedus created provided a valuable source of inspiration for the interactive fairytale as it provided an interesting source of interaction which could be extended to be focused specifically on children. But what makes the Fairytale different is the children, children have a different sense of perception as well as different attention spans which lead to creating an immersing environment. While both contain elements that relate to each other the differences are to make the Interactive Fairytale fit a new audience and add to the level of immersing.
