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This article investigates music performances with audiovisual components in extended reality setups that are not score based, but composed, emerging from a discursive process of interrelating human performers and computational counterparts such as virtual performance partners, virtual instruments, and potentials related to particular spaces. Rooted in notions of earlier avant-garde music and digital games, the performances are understood to emerge from a bottom-up process of relating human-technological agencies. A dichotomy of preexistent physical and virtual realities that would be extended or mixed is consequently replaced by a notion of entangled realities, as the artistic reality of the artwork emerges with the performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author proposes a theoretical framework for better understanding the scope of expression of interactive computer simulations. As programmed processes, simulations embody the logic of systems as conceived by systems theory. Here, this basis is seen as a kind of pre-forming perspectivation on a general level, leading to certain characteristics of simulated dynamics (differing from other modes of conceptualizing processes). It is crucial for epistemological questions as well as simulation practices to recognize the specificity of the kind of processes producible by simulations and to be conscious that there is no "natural" relationship between the simulation dynamics and their iconization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the work of a group of artists in Australia who used real-time motion capture and 3D stereo projection to create a large-scale performance environment in which dancers seemed to "touch" the volume. This project re-versions Suzanne Langer's 1950s philosophy of dance as "virtual force" to realize the idea of a "virtual haptics" of dance that extends the dancer's physical agency literally across and through the surrounding spatial volume. The project presents a vision of interactive dance performance that "touches" space by visualizing kinematics as intentionality and agency. In doing so, we suggest the possibility of new kinds of human-computer interfaces that emphasize touch as embodied, nuanced agency that is mediated by the subtle qualities of whole-body movement, in addition to more goal-oriented, task-based gestures such as pointing or clicking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elucidates two positions (the positivist and the critical) that inform the creative design of technological fashion. On the one side is the instrumentalist trend toward the minimized or disappearing interface. on the other, some theorists and artists suggest that increased invisibility presents social and ethical concerns (such as invasiveness and control) when networking and communication devices are involved. The positivist side has roots in modernist design. Positivist designers create responsive and controllable fabrics using shape-changing polymers, e-textiles, and nano-scale electronics to resolve clumsy and prohibitive problems of hardware vs. body. The critical side draws upon archetypal ideas about technology and the body that are familiar from literature and science fiction, and includes writers and media artists who emphasize the intractable or mechanic nature of technological clothing to enhance, rather than erase, the body. The paper concludes that both positions must be considered as the field of technological fashion moves forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses her on-line interactive telerobotic work ELIZA REDUX, its sources and the emblematic use of the psychoanalyst/analysand relationship as a performative vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors design computer installations that integrate artificial life and real life by means of human-computer interaction. While exploring real-time interaction and evolutionary image processes, visitors to their interactive installations become essential parts of the systems by transferring the individual behaviors, emotions and personalities to the works' image processing. Images in these installations are not static, pre-fixed or predictable, but "living systems" themselves, representing minute changes in the viewers' interactions with the installations' evolutionary image processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the online project, Technosphere, which has been made possible by a team of artists, software engineers, and animators. Technosphere is an online three-dimensional (3D) interactive artwork where users design artificial life forms that can interact with other life forms. It is said to have four components, management and web site design, artificial life and rendering engines, email engine, and modeling and animation. In the site, the user can choose a carnivorous or a herbivorous life form, and its respective body parts. The virtual world creators want the users to have more interaction with their creatures, but limit the users' control over the life expectancy of the creatures and choice of breeding partners.

Interactive narratives on CD-ROM have the potential to make us feel more a part of the stories we experience than do either film or print. Yet, as some early offerings in this fledgling genre reveal, the use of subjective camera and the constraints on the user's interaction with the narrative can conspire to make some readers feel straitjacketed by the text, rather than transported by it. The author analyzes one of these early offerings in depth and presents some alternative possibilities for this new genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on computer games, interactive multimedia, and intuitive interfaces. The author posed that an important facet of viewer experience has been deliberately excluded in the design of various interactive works. The satisfactions gained by acquired experience are an essential aspect of the computer game experience, but unfavorable to the current understanding of effective interface design for nongame applications. He argued that this is a serious issue that debases the communicative and expressive possibilities of interactivity.

This author addresses the assumptions that underlie most re- search into virtual reality (VR) and other interactive computer systems. These assumptions relate to tensions between views of perception as a matter of data input versus the notion of perception as mental construction. Similarly, there is a tension between the assumption that pictures are meaningful as representations of things and the opposing idea that pictures are meaningful as socially constructed human practices. Aspects of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger are invoked as a means of cutting through these dilemmas. This reading of Heidegger presents truthful representation as a matter of correspondence only when the truth is understood as a means of disclosing a world. The article concludes with practical suggestions for VR research and development appropriated from a Heideggerian perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our culture would benefit if artists became more deeply involved with interactive computer technology, because artists are essential to the exploration of its possibilities. The author describes his own computer-mediated interactive art events that explore artificial intelligence, videotext information networks, synthesized speech, robotics and computer-environment linkages. The audience takes on the significant role of cocreator by making decisions that affect the flow of events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article chronicles computer programs for automated musical composition over the last 30 years, providing musical examples from 11 computer-composed works. The author begins by focusing on early American efforts to impose stylistic controls through random sampling and testing, then describes European statistical approaches used until 1970. The rise of 'interactive' compositional utilities during the 1970s is linked to the growing proliferation of on-line computers. The current decade has been a period of eclectic interests: the resurgence of statistical procedures, the introduction of 'top-down' recursive grammars, the adaptation of problem-solving techniques from Artificial Intelligence and the continuation of interactive efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author first presents the theoretical basis of his work and some thoughts on the use of computers in the arts. He then describes four interactive computer-based installations that he has completed over the past several years. While all the works contained visual components, major portions of these constructed environments were the sounds generated by the perceivers. The ways the sounds organized the spaces and the effects of these pieces on the perceivers are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author argues that one of the computer's most unique features, its ability to respond in real-time, has yet to be fully exploited. For the past 16 years he has been creating an interactive computer medium in which the computer perceives a participant's actions and responds in real-time with visual and auditory displays. He describes his conceptual discovery process as well as work in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the use of mobile eye tracking to provide insights on the dynamics of haptic (touch/sense) and visual experience. We created a digital cultural walking trail (TRACES), designing an app to explore user experiences of their environment, and as a way to reveal the multilayered interactions between places and technology. Using mobile eye tracker technology to trace a person's place-based engagements, we show how the design of tablet-friendly apps can enrich experience by guiding viewers through an immersive and interactive environment with valuable information. We also highlight how this activity may negatively impact on experience by demanding attention away from real world engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents his views on interactive multimedia. He summarizes his views into seven types of interaction, which are: clicking on everything as the game/video told you to, games, aimless wandering, the user's point of view, the branching of story plots, the placement of viewers in the movie, and the quest for artificial intelligence. He states that these levels of interactivity show areas for improvement in multimedia design and development. It was his opinion that the current multimedia interaction being forwarded, lacks artistry and fun. He stresses the importance of cultivating a philosophy of interaction for designers to improve viewer involvement in creating worlds that provide real and emotional experiences by using forceful themes.

The article looks at the definitions of "virtual," "reality" and "virtual reality" to show that the paradoxical nature of this technology. This technology provides an interactive, full-color, three-dimensional audio-visual environment created by computer and controlled by the user. The "place" where virtual reality happens is called "cyberspace." Virtual reality is similar to the development and application of perspective during the Renaissance in Italy. It is a doorway to a different perception of reality in which information is the primary element.

This article introduces a new concept, digital interactivity, through examining local digital culture; and video game culture is employed as a metaphor to interpret local digital culture. As a result, 'control-' and 'communication'-based interaction are initiated, based on 'user to media' relationships. Based on the degree of physical interaction, 'liminal' and 'transitive' interactions are initiated. Less physical digital interaction is described as 'liminal' interaction and more physical digital interaction is described as transitive' interaction. These new classes of digital interaction can be applied to real-world examples, such as digital interactive installation artworks and video games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a practical study that formed part of the larger Creator project [1]. Data, such as GPS trails, video and audio files from a pervasive-performance were used to explore multidisciplinary understandings of such 'ephemeral' pieces. Video and audio content tagging was also explored as a device to aid in developing the archive for replay. It is recommended that projects involving artistic practice should make documentation and subsequent archiving part of their overall research strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the Eye-Balls project, which is an experiment in interactive performance systems. The experiment attempts to discover an accessible performance system, which is both financially and technologically minimal. Researcher Joe Marshall's eyeballs are evaluated while juggling by using a video camera plugged into a computer, which is running software designed to watch Marshall's eyes as well as his hand positions and his eyes. The design of the computer system developed is discussed.

Presents information on the interactive installation Torn Touch, exhibited in the Illinois Art Gallery in Chicago, Illinois in 1997. Benefits of sensory experience; Description of Torn Touch; Purpose of the interactive installation.

Describes audiovisual environment systems at the Young Talents exhibition held in Kazan, Russia, in January 1995. Demonstration of children's creativity; System for use in games and entertainment; System intended for kindergartens and elementary schools; Combining of musical and visual forms.

The article presents artist Isaac Victor Kerlow's first person narrative that describes the creation of "Broken Heart/Corazón Roto", a multimedia installation with an interactive computer program that allowed viewers to select sounds and images. Other elements of the installation include computer-generated images created with printmaking and digital printing techniques and simulated three-dimensional textured models.

The article describes the art project called "The Last Garden," an intermedia performance piece which is the result of the collaboration between composers Richard Povall and John D. Mitchell, and choreographer Kathleen Smith and set designer Jeff Thomson. It is an experimental fusion of music, movement and technology and applies an interactive computer system and virtual set created three moving screens and three channels of video projections. The inspiration for the piece is the story of a community garden in Manhattan but the City of New York eventually bulldozed it so that it is now empty and filled with garbage.

The article reports on the establishment of the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology (CEAIT) of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. The center focuses on research and development in interactive technology applied to publishing, performance and real-time information manipulation in all of the arts. Plans include an ongoing foundation program, educational programs, research and working conferences that are devoted to development issues and performance issues. Also, the center will support collaborative group residencies for artists, collaborations on interactive technology with industry groups, public presentations of artistic works, and further projects on education, information dissemination and artistic database access.

A review of the interactive CD-ROM "The Databank of the Everyday" is presented.

The article describes the art project called the Palm-Size Plastic Case series, which is composed of interactive computer-art projects completed between June 1992 and September 1992. All of the projects in the series were constructed with the goal of exploring alternative ways of hardware input to software programs. A key goal in each was to include a mind-and-body interplay between users and on-screen computer images. Each of the three plastic cases is hand-decorated with imagery that represents the action that the individual project performs.