Symbiosis between participation and system design: from interactive art to urban development

Abstract

In interactive art practice and community-based urban development, user participation plays a key role in the development phase of a project. The present paper draws on experience from our work in these two fields to analyse the role of participation in interactive systems as a form of cooperation assisting the ongoing design of system structure. A system is a complex of interacting and interrelated components. Relationships within the system, or the structure, define and generate behaviours between human participant(s) and other components of an art or urban environment. While urban development and interactive art deal with participation in differing contexts and scales, the goal of the practitioner is consistent: the construction of a system that enables and maintains meaningful interaction towards some goal. The aim of this paper is to compare observations from our works at both the art-lab and urban scales, and to characterize the symbiotic relationship between user participation and system design. The comparison of these two diverse fields provides unique insight into this relationship.

Keywords:

• Interactive art
• Urban planning
• Participatory system
• Structure
• Feedback
• Motivation

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by a University of Sydney Postgraduate Award and a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Construction Innovation Scholarship.