Physical Interaction

How would you define physical interaction? What makes for good physical interaction? Are there works from others that you would say are good examples of digital technology that are not interactive?

I would define physical interaction as interaction through physical movements and capacities between actors. Movements that human body is currently capable of performing, and additional sets of new ones as we develop and incorporate high-tech prosthetic, artificial limb, and bio limb in the future. Physical capacity includes the five traditionally recognized senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Also we can include more physical ability that detect other stimuli like balance, vibration, and kinesthetic sense. Physical interactions has a cyclic process of input, process, and output. In this case, the form of the input and output steps of the process would be in movement, physical changes, or sensory cues.

As Bret Victor mentioned in his article, good physical interactions utilize our bodies and the senses, rather than adopting our body to a screen. The Picture Under Glass paradigm limits our physical interaction to a small subset of movements, specifically, just using a finger to scroll or tap. One of most memorable interactive experiences that I have had was an interactive play called Sleep No More. Although Crawford pointed out the traditional play should not be consider as interactive, this play was interactive because it is designed to allow viewers to fully engage with the actors. My view experience changes as interact with the actors and choose to follow different path within the play. It was an experience that engages with all the five traditionally recognized senses and more. The emotional and sensory experience from it was truly immersive.

An example of digital technology that is not interactive is face recognition technology. It is designed to identify and verify a person rather than to interact.