Andy Cameron
is a founding member of the Hypermedia Reseach Centre at the University of Westminster in London. He co-founded Antirom in 1994, based on an ongoing research project into the nature of interactivity - how it operates as a language, what forms and figurations of rhetoric it makes available, and what novel structures of spectatorship it offers. Antirom operates as a commercial interactive agency for clients like Levi Strauss, and as an arts collective, with productions and performances at, among others, Sonar in Barcelona and the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. http://www.antirom.com The Composition Station - What Interactivity Is Good For I will present a paper which looks at the way in which new technologies and new cultural forms are related and how they affect each other. I will be looking at the short history of video games, as well as at recent (failed) attempts to create a new cultural form known as "interactive narrative". Finally I will be examining the potential of interactive technologies to make possible a new form of "interactive music". I will present an interactive music project which my company, Romandson Ltd, is currently working on for the new Wellcome Wing Extension to the Science Museum here in London, due to open in spring 2000. The project is called "The Composition Station" and allows 4 people to create interactive and generative music together within a rich and complex time frame. Video games are a good example of how new technologies can sometimes throw up an exciting and unprecedented new cultural form - in this case the form we now call interactivity. The video game is also a good example of how technologies are so often used in ways which exceed the imagination and intentions of the engineers who invent them. So the cultural forms which arise out of new machines are often surprising. In fact, it seems that when we consciously try to fit together cultural form and technology, it doesn't really work. A good example of how to fail is the attempt to add narrative to the video game - to create a kind of interactive narrative. Another idea which may have more chance of success is "interactive music". The 20th Century is the century when music more or less stopped being interactive, and became something to be consumed in a passive manner within a political economy of repetition. This came about as a result of the invention of the record, and the commodification of the "frozen" performance. The idea for making "interactive music" is a compelling one, not least because interactive technologies, from the piano to the synthesizer, have always been at the center of the practice of music. The Phase Project - Composition Station for the Science Museum, London, opening in Spring 2000. The Composition Station represents sound and image as synaesthetic, as an abstraction which can be apprehended as a pattern in time and space. It is influenced by the Balinese Gamelan and the music of Steve Reich. The Composition Station is a four player installation set into a table. Each player controls a touch screen grid which plays a sequence, combining with the others to form a complex and generative musical performance. By changing the length of a sequence, relative to the others, the player has a subtle influence over the overall sound, and patterns of ludic engagement are quickly established between players. Phase is interactive and playful - it engages the user in an open ended and playful exploration of musical composition. It is intuitive - it is easy to understand and the interface is simple enough to be used without instructions. It is empowering - it privileges participation rather than technique or virtuosity. It is ambient - it has no fixed beginning or end, so users can join or leave at any point. See schedule.	program BILL BUXTON ANDY CAMERON MATTHEW CHALMERS DANIEL DÖGL BILL GAVER NEIL GERSHENFELD ANDREW GLASSNER PAUL HAEBERLI TOM HEWETT BREWSTER KAHLE PANU KORHONEN DOUG LENAT JO LERNOUT RALPH MERKLE THEODOR H. NELSON CELIA PEARCE MARK PESCE HANI RASHID BILL SCHILIT DAVID SMALL MARCO SUSANI JOHN THACKARA MICHAEL FREEDMAN TURNER WHITTED ANTON ZEILINGER
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