Collaborative registers of interactive art

Research into collaborative modes of technology development is often discussed in terms of communication and co-ordination. The process of collaboration in interactive art projects warrants consideration beyond the management of cross-disciplinary teams. This paper addresses three collaborative registers identified in recent literature on interactive art in relation to a series of case studies of screen based and e-textile based creative projects. These registers include collaboration within interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary teams; collaboration as material engagement by ‘makers,' and collaboration through audience participation. The distinction made between functional forms of interaction design where engagement leads to an outcome or result and aesthetic forms concerned with interactivity as a medium that produces meaning, was based on traditional knowledge frameworks associated with technology development on the one hand, and the creative arts, on the other. The development of new forms of interface that have shifted away from the ‘buttons-and-screens’ of the personal computer and the availability of open source physical computing platforms, have introduced new conceptualizations as well as new development processes. Interactive technologies can be regarded as expressive materials that show themselves in use. Collaboration is typically thought of as being between human beings. But there is also a collaborative aspect to materials, onto which you do not simply impose your vision, but rather discover it there. Interactivity is emerging as a distinctive medium with an ontological framing that involves temporal dimensions through embodied participation in the performance and meaning of the work of art. The engagement of performer with interactive artifact and audience as performer of the artwork introduces another dimension that challenges traditional spectatorial positions and their associated aesthetic regulations, recognizing the significance of embodiment and engagement, in contrast to the distanciation of traditional visual and cinematic art form