3D Magic Eye - A different form of interactivity?

I started thinking about the old idea of magic eye images. These are in a way very interactive as they require the viewer to focus in a particular way in order to receive a 3d image. It is quite a different form of interactivity as it doesn't require much physical involvement by the user, just a long time staring. I was thinking how interesting it is that the way you look at these images (with a blurred focus) is quite similar to when you are in deep day dream, or completely immersed in a painting or landscape. I can't think of any other form of interactivity where you get this completely uninterrupted experience, where you can almost switch off. Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps video games have a similar way of drawing the player into an almost "dream like" state.

I remember the first time I was introduced to one of these magic eye images, and how eager I was to be able to see the 3d image. I got really frustrated after 20 minutes when I still couldn't see it, but when i eventually did it truly seemed like magic.

Anyway just out of curiosity I started looking into how these images are made and came across this flash website where you can make your own 3d magic eye image, you draw the content that you want to appear in 3d.

Try for yourself here

Here is one I made

Maybe one could expand on this idea of an image becoming alive without the viewer taking any action, either by speech recognition or movement sensors. I like the idea of something being interactive yet time consuming or in other words the viewer having to take some time over a particular piece before moving on. Perhaps sound could also help in setting a particular pace.

I also like the way these images often have patterns made of smaller images that gives clues to the larger 3D image. In the above example the roses are a metaphor for love giving a clue to the 3D image being a heart.

Thoughts on Interactivity:

Idea Generating Exercises - answers to Carolyn Hadler Miller text.

1. What traditional ritual have you participated in, or are you aware of, that reminds you in some way of an interactive narrative? What is it about this ritual that you think is like a computerized interactive experience?

If Guy Fawkes Night can be considered a traditional ritual then it seems a good example of an event that could be compared with an interactive experience in a multi player online game. In Lewes each year on the fifth of November people celebrate the night by dressing up in old costumes and participating in the big procession parading through the small town. Bonfires and fireworks are used as a reminder of the big gunpowder plot that nearly killed the English parliament and King James 1 in 1605 . The big theatrical show taking place throughout the evening follows certain traditional rituals that brings people together with a sense of social belonging, importance and common goal similar to players in online games.












2. What game or sport have you played that you think could be adapted to a work of interactive entertainment? what would remain the same, what would have to be changed, and in what way?

I remember a game I used to play when I was a kid named 'I declare war', this was an outdoor game with chalk. A big round circle was drawn on the ground, the circle was divided into even parts, one for each number of players. Each player represented a different country and had a part which was there land. One player would through a ball in the air and say 'I declare war against....Italy' the player representing Italy had to catch the ball and say STOP whilst everyone else ran away from the circle. When stop was called out everyone had to stop and stay where they were. The player who had caught the ball chose the nearest other player and took 3 steps towards this other player as well as a spit, where the spit landed he could see if he could reach the other player from here and if so he was aloud to try and take some of this players land by standing on one leg in the centre of the circle and drawing as big a piece of land as possible out of the other persons land and naming it Italy. The idea was to get as much land off the others as well as keeping your own. Who ever had the most land at the end of the game had won.
I think this is typical example of an old game that has many ideas
now used in an interactive games. In fact the game Risk, which is both a board game and a computer game draws on similar ideas. Claiming the oppositions territories.

3. What work of traditional storytelling (a novel, a play, a movie, or even a comic book) have you read or seen that contains a narrative technique that could be applied to a work of digital entertainment? What is this technique, and how could it be used?

The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware is a comic book that uses clever techniques to engage the reader at a much deeper level. Colours and various grids are used to hump through the story in a way that is much more like a in a film. When ever the background is red the main character Jimmy is feeling anxious. I theink this form of narrative technique could be applied to a film or game.




















5. Can you think of any work of traditional entertainment (poem, short story, novel, play, movie, TV show, etc.) that breaks the "fourth wall"? Describe how the fourth wall is broken in this work. Could the fourth wall be broken in a similar way in an interactive work? Why or why not?

Lars Von Triers - The Five Obstructions is an experimental film. Lars Von Trier challenged his mentor Jorgen Leth, to a one-of-a-kind director's game: von Trier gives Leth rules, or obstructions, by which Leth would have to remake his own 1967 short film "The Perfect Human"--five times.
I think this film breaks the fourth wall as it lets the viewer not only see how this film is made, but almost makes the viewer feel as if he/she has been part of making this film due to the way the film is styled as a documentary emotionally engaging the viewer in the same journey as leth is taking. Besides Leth and Trier dosn't know any more than the viewer what the outcome is going to be. Brilliant piece of work in my opinion, everyone should watch this.

http://worldfilm.about.com/od/scandinavianfilm/fr/5obstructions.htm

Research for Design for Interaction Project

http://www.aec.at/en/index.asp
http://www.aec.at/en/archives/pp_center_inst_chronolog.asp
http://www.setpixel.com/

Wikinomics Book

I found this in the latest Edge Magazine
Christmas 2007 p.22
After having discussed this subject in class and come across it loads since through other readings, I really want to read the book myself.

Sutte Træ i Frederiksberg Have

Project: Design for Interaction Nov. 07 - Jan. 08

We have been given a new project brief which involves developing an interactive project that explores/plays with the concepts surrounding the process of interactivity. The brief suggests that we look into other areas, than just screen based design, where audience interaction is an integral part of a concept. The final piece could include; a game, an experimental website, an interactive art-piece, a non-linear story, or a design for an interactive environment, such as retail space, a museum, a learning zone or as a response to a public arts commission.
I am not sure what I would like to do for this brief yet, however I like the idea of something that is less screen based and more experimental. After hearing about how the games developers at Kerb makes games that grow and stay alive on the Internet for an incredible amount of time, I started thinking how great it would be to create something that potentially could live and grow forever. I am not quite sure how this could be achieved but it is an interesting thought. Previously I made an Interactive Poetry Installation in collaboration with another student, this gave me a good idea of how a successful interactive piece is achieved. I think the key is a careful process of constantly asking questions and evaluating any ideas and decisions made, as well as always referring back to the goal or main purpose of the work. I really enjoyed making an installation so maybe I should consider the same area for this project. Back then I realised how important it was to be two people working together as we were able to feed off each others ideas and form much more in depth realisations of what we wanted to achieve due to long discussions and criticisms together. It was a really exciting process, I hope I can use some of the same principles for this project and take advantage of tutors and class mates to discuss my ideas. This blog is probably not a bad place to start, if everyone can help each other out, people are bound to achieve something far greater.
I am going to start my research by raising some really basic questions such as:

What does interactive mean?
What does Interactivity involve?
In what different areas is the concept of interaction used?

Artists I know about who work around the subject of interactivity, installation art or audience participation:
Lev Manovich
Bill Viola
Blast Theory
David Rokeby
Camille Utterback

Book: Interactivity by Design by Ray Kristof & Amy Satran

Alistair suggested I had a look at this website:
We-make-money-not-art.com

Exhibitions

John Maeda

Why it would make sense to live in chaos.

Guys you have to read this! It really made me laugh.

For those of you who insist on dwelling on supply chain management to the detriment of your social life, one fascinating idea in that field comes from Stephen Ho, who just got his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ho calls his idea, which will only work once RFID is on every product, "location-relaxed storage." It's a funny euphemism in the tradition of calling a bald person follically challenged.

Basically it means that instead of organizing a warehouse by putting items in their carefully defined proper places, RFID will make it more efficient to just throw everything everywhere. It's the total chaos warehouse.

How can that possibly work better? Well, picture an Amazon.com warehouse. A worker is looking at an order for one copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beagles and one copy of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Chances are that the spot for beagle books is far away from the spot for T.S. Eliot books. The worker has to zoom around the warehouse to fill the order.

Now let's say every book has an RFID tag. Whenever a truckload of books arrives at the warehouse, instead of sorting them into defined slots, workers just shove them anywhere there's an empty space. Copies of Idiot's Guide to Beagles and Prufrock are scattered all around the building.

RFID readers placed around the warehouse constantly ping all the RFID tags to learn what books are where. The readers send that data to the warehouse's central computer. Then a worker filling an order picks up a wireless handheld computer and uses it to ask the central computer where he can find the nearest copy of each book.

Because the books are scattered around the warehouse, one of each is likely to be nearby, making the worker more efficient — he might just have to walk a few steps to get both books. Ho mathematically proved that the chances are greater that both books would be closer when using this chaotic, location-relaxed storage system, vs. using an organized warehouse.

Of course, if the electricity goes out, the warehouse is hosed.

Though Ashton didn't say so, there might be some contradictory elements to these RFID concepts.

If it's true that in an RFID world it's more efficient to fling everything around a warehouse than to use space as an organizing principle, would that also apply to your home? It might be better to let everything in your house go to chaos, then use an RFID reader to find what you're looking for.

I would love to try this ridiculous system out at home one day in the future, wouldn't you?

I also wandered if this concept could apply to your computer one day. No need to save things in the correct folders, just shove things where ever you want, much more efficient.

Taken from: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2004-10-05-maney_x.htm