o 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Al.L rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any formby any e[ectronic or mechanicaI means (including photocopying,

recording, or information storage and retrieval) witiout permission inwriting from the publisher.

This book was set in Adobe Chapparal and iTC 0fficinaby MichaeI Crumpton and was printed and bound

in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Catatoging-in-publication Data

First person : new med.ia as story, performance, and game /edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and pat Harrigan.

p. cm.

Inctudes bibliographicat references and index.ISBN 0-262-23232-4 (hard: atk. paper)

I. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah. II. Harrigan. pat.

GV1469.77.563F57 2oO3

794.8-dc21

2003048784

Unusuat Positions -EmbodiedInteraction withSymbotic SpacesCamille UtterbackAll forms of "interactive text" demand a physical bodywith which to interact. When we use the now-commoninterface that consists of a mouse and keyboard as

input devices, and the computer screen as display

mechanism, it is easy to forget the body whose eyes

perceive the screen, and whose hands and fingersmanipulate the mouse and keyboard. In her book How

We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles (1999) has

eloquently explored how "information lost its body."

Hayles investigates the theoretical, historical, andliterary maneuvers through which modern society has

dissociated information from a body or medium. Theconsequent elevation of abstraction over embodimentis mirrored by a corresponding lack of computerinterfaces that meaningfully engage our bodies withthe information and codes represented in ourmachines. The degree to which our physical

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interactions with machines is impoverished isillustrated by a common saying in the universitydepartment where I teach. The saying describes the"human-computer interface" from the computer's pointof view -

'when the computer stares back at you, itsees you as one eye and one finger."t

With much of my artwork - in both tra&tional and&gital media - I have attempted to draw attention tothe connections between human bo&es and thesymbolic systems our bodies engage with. The &gitalme&um interests me because it is a perfect site toexplore the interface between physical bodies andvarious representational systems, be they language, thelinear perspective used in three-dimensional rendering,or the various forms of computer code itself. In mydigital works my strategy for this exploration has been

to develop interfaces that honor and engage more ofthe body than just one eye and one fingei' Interfaces,

by providing the connective tissue between our bodies

and the codes represented in our machines, necessarily

engage them both. How and to what extent newinterfaces may engage the body, however, is up forgrabs.

Practical interfaces are about maintaining the user's

sense of control. In this scenario representations onscreen must respond to the user in a logical andpredictable way. futists can explore other possibilities.

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Response by Matt GorbetI share Utterback's excitement about the expressive

possibilities offered by the new genre of interactivephysical interfaces. Meaningfully engaging the bodywith information can create experiences that are

aesthetically and emotionally much more rewardingthan the ubiquitous point-and-click, as Utterbackshows. However, I question her definition of a"practical" inte#ace as one that is 'about maintainingthe user's sense of control" and her implication that the"poetic" interfaces she describes in the text do notnecessarily need to maintain this control. I suggest,

rather, that the success of the works she presents

depends precisely on the sense of control afforded bysimple and physically familiar interactions. Given this,

the seemingly simple content of these pieces raises

interesting questions about the limits of the genre.

What is the depth of content that can be expresse4 inview of the apparent interaction constraints of such

body-centric work?Early in her essay, Utterback implies that in buil&ng

interfaces that are 'poetic rather than practical," artistscanlshould create interactions that do not follow logic

or are unpredictable. However, all of the pieces she

describes succeed in part because of their familiar andconsistent physical interfaces: the forms of a ladder,

see-saw bicycle, and (video) rnirror are all immediatelyperceived and well-understood, so these pieces make

sense to their users. Contrary to Utterback's

implication, these particular interfaces are indeed

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UnusuaI PositionsCami[[e Utterback

the bottom pooI. The "physically" modeled behavior ofthe words produces the convincing illusion that the textis floating on and carried along by the water. The textappears to have entered the viewer's world where forceslike gravity and fluid dynamics affect its course. Whilethe text still carries its symbolic weight as words, it also

becomes the physical objects of leaves or detritus carriedalongby the water's flow.

The illusion that these characters are somehowobjects as well as signs is furthered by one's ability tophysically alter the course of the letters as they cascade

down the fountain. As viewers press or push theirhands on a small pressure-sensitive pad,2 glowing blueareas appear in corresponding areas of the fountain.The size and shape of the glowing area depends on thesize and pressure ofyour touch. By positioning your"hand" in the path of the letters you can block theirflow down the fountain, causing them to swirl in newpatterns, and eventually change their meaning as theymorph into new words.

The words that Small and White choose to "float"

down their fountain hint at the conundrum of thesimultaneously virtual, physical, and signifying text inthis piece. In one sequence of text the characters are

symbols from the periodic table of elements - "Ni,"

"Ca," etc. These symbols morph into the word for theircorresponding element when you stop them

FIRSTPERSON

midstream. The boundary between words "standing

for" elements that make up the physical world and"stan&ng in" for those elements as a physical object inthe fountain is blurred as you push and pull themaround in the water, manipulating them with yourfingers instead of your mind" The tension between theintangibility of the projected text and its behavior as a

tangible object (which you can "touch" via the interface)parallels the tension between the text's position as a

signifier for arcal, object and the real object itrepresents.

Pressing and sli&ng one's fingers over the pressure-sensitive pad in this installation provides a moresensual experience than interacting with a mouse, butthe interaction is still confined to a relatively naruowchannel. The interpenetration between the real and thesymbolic in this piece is in fact quite lopsided. While thetext seems to have escaped into the physical realm ofthe fountain almost completely, "you," via the pressure-sensitive pad, are present in the abstract world of thesesymbols only in the form of a blue glow that changes

its position and size.

InTextRain,by myself and RomyAchituv (1999),

text again takes on the behaviors of objects thatrespond to forces in the real world, and also to thephysical gestures of viewers (figure 18.2).InTextRainhowever, the interface of video camera and tracking

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projected (figure 18.response.1). Visitors can browsethe text by gendy tilting the surface. The text slides

across the surface in response to the tilt, as though itwere physically on the table. With this simpleinteraction, visitors who are new to the exhiblt are able

to take advantage of their understan&ng of thephysical world to operate the device. As with theinteractive pieces Utterback describes, there is verylittle learning curye, no "righi or "wrong" way tointeract, and no instructions need to be given.

Utterback's examples and the Tilty Table shareanother similarity in the nature of the text theypresent: they employ short forms of text such as

poetry, quotations, and symbols. Such texts are

effective because they can be quickly grasped and have

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18.response.1. Tilty Tabte. (Matt Gorbet)

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]o suoursod umop pue dn 3ur1eu;a1p aql ol puodsar-rot

]pi{} lv\al^Jo s}urod Sursoddo orrrl q3noryr drqsuor}e1a"i

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'saqursap 1:eq-Ia]]O sarard aql;g '}t Surtuauadxa

dgenpe pue arard aqr ,,dn 8urllas,, uaamlaq uorle-redas

pnlda:uor e pup suoqlnrtrsu auosraqurnt roJ Paau aq]

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(p'g1 a"rn8r;) tt43 ap1&al atfi ur a1il:rq (686I) s,llreqs

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Unusual PositionsCamitle Utterback

18.3. Drowing from Life by Cami[[e Utterback (2001).

become "immersed" you can easily feel present in boththe physical and virtual space simultaneously, orseamlessly shift back and forth between the two.

It is also significant that this interface allowsparticipants to engage not only using their wholebo&es, but also with other people's bodies in theinstallation space. People often cooperate to catchletters - holding hands or stretching coats and scarves

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between them. The video interface allows people to be

physically engaged with the text, but also to engage

with each other while interacting with the text.In another piece of mine, Drawing from Life (2007),

the text's behavior is even more tightly coupled to theviewer - it becomes them (figure 18.3). Upon enteringthe installation space, participants encounter a livevideo projection of themselves, but their images are

completely transformed into the letters '4," "T," "G," and"C"

- the letters representing the four proteins ofDNA. The letters are color-coded based on the colorassociated with each protein from computer-analyzedgels scientists use when decoding the genome. Thecolor saturation of any particular letter is based on thebrightness of the color in the incoming video, so some

amount of detail about each person is visible. It isremarkable how recognizable in&viduals are even inthis abstracted form.

By abstracting live imagery of a viewer's body intothe letters that compose DNA, the installation raises

questions about our embodiment and the code that is

both part of, and helps produce our "selves." As in thepreviously described installations, here again theboundary between flesh and abstraction is questioned

by the content of the interactive text as well as by itsbehavior.

When viewers recognize that the projected imagery is

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through a compelling narrative arc.

AII of the works &scussed in Utterback's essay create

provocatively poetic experiences at the intersection ofthe body and the symbolic. The physical forms shape

the experiences by informing and constraining theinteractions. In many ways, the constraints of thepieces described by Utterback are integral to theirsuccess and beauty. Like haiku, they have a certain grace

and power in their rigid simplicity. If these pieces are

the haiku of the genre, how might we go about creating

the Homer?

From Adrianne Wortzel's Online ResponseCamille Utterback and RomyAchituv's (1999) TextRain

is one of my favorite works in the world, in that it acts

out the manipulation of text through physical will. Indoing so, it not only gives us pleasure but also

actualizes the pluralistic significance of words as

message, meaning, metaphor, symbol and object. In herwriting here, she covers well the story of artists'working with external manipulation by extendingourselves physically. I would like to add some

comments on the internalization of these controls byway of attaching computing mechanisms to the bodyitself and, alternatively, internalizing them.

Stelarc's (1997) performative works are driven by a

philosophy that engages the obsolesence of the human

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entirely oftext. In this installation the user sits on areal bicycle and pedals his or her way through a'rirtuallandscape oftext. The in&vidual characters ofthe textin this installation become the architecture. Each letteris monumentally rendered in three dimensions, andtakes the place ofa building along the city streets ofthis space. The letters march off into the horizon,defining streets and avenues that correspond to realcity maps of New York, Amsterdam, or Karlsruhe,

Germany. In two of the cityscapes, the size of each

Ietter in the text actually corresponds to the size of thebuil&ng it represents. The text from which each city is"created" is also text about that city. The texts varyfrom contemporary quotes and writing to descriptionsof historical events. The Drawing from Life instal,ationconflates code with body. In a similar move, The Legible

Cigz equates descriptions of cities with the city itself.ln The Legible City, in order to read the texts stretched

along the city streets (similarly to Text Rain) one mustuse one's body. A button on the bicycle interface allowsthe user to instantaneously switch views between thecities, but to move any,where within the environmentrequires real physical exertion. Unlike so many virtualworlds, here distance matters. One's legs are the means

of transport, but also an essential part of the equationif one wishes to read. The tension between thissymbolic city - both "rendered" by text and virtual -

FIRSTPMKS*'$

and the physical exertion required to move through it,is the tension between the material and the abstractthat has informed all of the pieces discussed so far.

In Shaw's The Legible City, one has the illusion thatone's point of view is changing based on the changingimagery on the projection screen. As is often the case

with computer interfaces, the viewer sits still while thedisplay simulates motion. Two of my works requirethat one actually physically change one's point of viewto interact with the piece. In the first of these pieces,

Vicissitudes, a six-foot ladder and a chalk outline on thefloor provide the interface for two audio tracks (figure

18.5). One soundtrack consists of interviews of people' describing times in their life when they felt "up" or "on

top of the world," the other track of times when these

same people felt "down" or "low." Climbing the rungs ofthe ladder raises the volume of the "up" soundtrack,while lying dor,rm in the chalk outline raises the volumeof the "dor,rm" soundtrack. Many of our linguisticconstructs rely on physical metaphor, though they have

become transparent to us due to their common usage.

Through its interface, this piece explores theembo&edness of language itself.

In a recent installation created with Adam Chapman

- See/Saw - we use a see-saw as the interface to twoscreens (figure 18.6). One screen is positioned behindeach seat of the see-saw across from each other in the

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important questions when developing a functionalform. If oneweremakingartout of aTiltyTablehowever, the question would be instead, what type ofemotional content is implied by the tilty-ness of thetable, or by the sensation of the text disappearing offthe table's edges?

lii*pi#wwffi lpctf s{khilq kerjew.aos#thrced/fi rstpAi'pnT, r*tq t qqk e:18.response.3. Stelarc's Hondswiting - writing one word

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1982. (Photo Keisuke Oki, permission Stelarc)

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Poetic Garden andTextRain, text becomes objects withseemingly physical properties that the user can engage

with using their body. ln Drawingfiom Life, characters

take the shape of the users' bodies, mirroring theirmotions and gestures. ln Th e L e gible City, text forms the

architecture one traverses on a physical bicycle. InVicissitudes and See/Saw, the body on one side of theinterface must "move." \n As Much As You Love Me, theinterface allows the symbolic to reach into the physical

world and constrain the user's motions. The flip side ofthe text's transgression into the physical in these pieces

is the manner in which the user's body enters thesymbolic space of the texts - as a blue glow, a

photographic image, or a point of view. What is at stake

in tlese artistic investigations, more than the creative

possibilities for "interactive text," is the position andstatus of our bodies as they are increasingly

represented on screens, or in the virtual space of ourmachines. As we create new interfaces between ourbodies and our symbolic systems we are in a unusualposition to rethink and re-embody this relationship.

Notes1. This saying is originatly attributed to Joy Mountford.

2. The pressure-sensitive pad used in this installation has

undergone changes through the course of exhibiting the piece.

0riginaLty the interface was a [iquid-filled bag with a video camerainside that tracked pressure as changes in Light. At the instatlationof the piece in the Ars ELectronica Center in Linz, Austria, theLiquid bag was rep[aced by a commercially avai[ab[e pad, which is

more responsive and robust.

3. Fatting text is excerpted from "TaLk, You" by Evan Zimroth,pubtished in Deod, Dinner, or Noked poems by Evan Zimroth,TriQuarterLy Books, Northwestern University Press, 1993. Used withpermissio n.

FIRSTPffiffiSffiN

ReferencesBack, M., R. Gotd, A. Balsamo, M. Chow, M. Gorbet, S. Harrison, D.

MacDonaLd, and S. Minneman (2001). "Designing InnovativeReading Experiences for a Museum Exhibition." IEEE Computer34,no. 1 (2001):80-87.

HayLes, N. Katherine (1999). How We Become Posthuman. Chicago:The University of Chicago Press.

Kac, Eduardo (1997). Time Copsule.<http://www.ekac. org/ti mec. htm [>.

Kac, Eduardo (1,997). A-Positive.<http://www.ekac. org/apositive. htm 1,.

Kruglanski, 0rit (2000). As Much as You Love lvle.

.http://www.ok-centru m. at/aussteL[un gen/cyberarts00/kru gtanski. htm ['.

Shaw, Jeffrey (1989). The Legibte City.<http://www.xspace. at/englis h/s h aw. htm [>.

Smatt, David and Tom White (1997-98). Stream of Consciousness: AnInteroctive Poetic Garden..http: / / acg. nedia. mit.edu/projects/strea m/'.

SteLarc (1997). Parosite..http ://wwuste[arc.va.com.au/parasite/index. htm>.

Utterback, Cami[Le and Romy Achituv (7999). Text Roin.<http://www.ca mi ILeutterback. com/textrai n. htm L>.

Utterback, Camille and Adam Chapman (2007). See/Saw.<http://www.ca mi LLeutterback. com/seesaw' htm [,.

Utterback, CamiLLe (2001). Drawing from Life.<http://www. cami Lteutterback. com/drawi ngfrom [ife. htm [>.

Xerox PARC (2000). The TiLty TabLes.

<http://www.theredshift -xfr. com/ti lty_tabLes. htm [>.

Zimroth, Evan (1993). Deod, Dinner, or Naked. Evanston, IL:TriQuarterly Books.

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