Embedding an audiovisual interactive installation environment in urban space for enhancing social interaction

Abstract

This paper documents the creative process and attempts to record the impact of an open-air, site specific, interactive multisensory installation environment titled "DETOUR", which was created by the interdisciplinary group "VE_design", as part of the "Athens by Art" international exhibition during the summer of 2004. The site chosen for the installation was a very busy area within the urban context. DETOUR's aim was to afford an alternative environmental experience, embedded within the noise and introversion of the everyday cityscape. Visitors were invited to participate in a mediated communication game with the DETOUR system, as well as with other visitors within the installation environment. The paper also focuses on the manner in which visitors responded to certain aspects of this electronically mediated environmental experience, how they interacted with the system and certain elements of it, how they interacted with others within the environment and how they felt about their experience. It mainly focuses on the manner in which this environment instigated interpersonal communication amongst people who happened to be walking in this urban area. The analysis of this installation's impact is supported by interviews taken from visitors after their experience, reports by visitors after a certain period of time of experiencing the environment, video recordings and own observations.