TY - JOUR

T1 - INK - Designing for Performative Literary Interactions

AU - Fritsch, Jonas

AU - Pold, Søren Bro

AU - Vestergaard, Lasse Steenbock

AU - Lucas, Melissa

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - In this article, we present the interactive literaryinstallation Ink, an experimental installation displayed atthe Roskilde library, and the Roskilde Festival, which isdesigned to prompt public reflection on the nature and roleof digital literature. By manipulating three books embeddedwith sensors, and watching text visualized on a 55’’screen, members of the public select from a range of predefinedsentences, previously created by a Danish author,and stored in a database. Squeezing the books alters eachpoetic line by degrees. The final poems print onto a libraryreceipt for their producers and upload to a blog for publicviewing. We present (1) design challenges to an installationmeant to persuade people to engage affectively with theergodic nature of digital literature and (2) an in-depthanalysis of the empirical findings from the installationstudies at the Roskilde Festival. In particular, we highlightthe broad, rich range of performative interactions facilitatedby the interactive setup. This analysis examines theperformative writing and reading achieved by the publicthrough interaction with Ink and also with the resultantpoems. From this exploration, we discuss general tendencieswhen designing affectively engaging literary interactionsat the edge of art and design.Keywords: Affective engagement, Digital literature, Ergodic reading, Public displays, Performative interaction

AB - In this article, we present the interactive literaryinstallation Ink, an experimental installation displayed atthe Roskilde library, and the Roskilde Festival, which isdesigned to prompt public reflection on the nature and roleof digital literature. By manipulating three books embeddedwith sensors, and watching text visualized on a 55’’screen, members of the public select from a range of predefinedsentences, previously created by a Danish author,and stored in a database. Squeezing the books alters eachpoetic line by degrees. The final poems print onto a libraryreceipt for their producers and upload to a blog for publicviewing. We present (1) design challenges to an installationmeant to persuade people to engage affectively with theergodic nature of digital literature and (2) an in-depthanalysis of the empirical findings from the installationstudies at the Roskilde Festival. In particular, we highlightthe broad, rich range of performative interactions facilitatedby the interactive setup. This analysis examines theperformative writing and reading achieved by the publicthrough interaction with Ink and also with the resultantpoems. From this exploration, we discuss general tendencieswhen designing affectively engaging literary interactionsat the edge of art and design.Keywords: Affective engagement, Digital literature, Ergodic reading, Public displays, Performative interaction

KW - digital literature

KW - public displays

KW - Affective interaction design

KW - Performativity

KW - Digital Aesthetics

U2 - 10.1007/s00779-014-0767-2

DO - 10.1007/s00779-014-0767-2

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 1551

EP - 1565

JO - Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

JF - Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

SN - 1617-4909

IS - 7

ER -