This decision not only simplified the programming and hardware demands of the installation, but also gave me more freedom when creating the physical objects for the tangible interfaces. The physical object design no longer needed to accommodate any hardware. This redesign was technically possible in the following manner: the hardware-free objects are placed in the installation space in static, calibrated locations. When the audience member's hand, wearing a hand tracker sensor, enters the calibrated locations, hot zones that tightly surround each object, the tracking system can sense the interaction and display the proper media in the audience member's head mounted display.
In creating and revising the design for this project, I have taken inspiration from several sources. Donald Norman's well-known book, The Design of Everyday Things, makes the excellent point that if an object needs instructions, it is an indication of poor design. Norman observes, "Well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation" (2). As long as audience members are not confused, I believe they generally want to interact. In a piece I created with Kyle Shepard at Brown University's Production Workshop in 2004, The Magellan Project, audience members were presented with actors on pedestals. Each pedestal had a malleted standing bell on it of the same type commonly seen at hotel lobby front desks. The prominent positioning of the bell combined with the social conventions surrounding the object made it clear that audience members were intended to interact with the bells, and moments after the performance began each night, the bells were ringing.
Hiroshi Ishii's work as discussed by Bill Moggridge in Designing Interfaces highlights the role of simplicity and elegance in creating visually compelling interfaces that audience members will want to touch and interact with (522). I have created a simple and striking design for the installation, using black curtains to line the walls of the lab, minimal lighting, and suspending the uniformly painted white tangible interface objects in midair using wire. It is my hope the design embodies sound principles of interactivity and creates a feeling of the uncanny.
The AR tangible interfaces were also designed to involve audience members through physical interaction with key themes in Woyzeck. For example, the life-sized mannequin for audience members to stab embodies a pseudo-surgical or voodoo doll interface for the scene at the doctor's lab. This interface seeks to involve the audience member directly in Woyzeck's torture. By imposing the acts of humiliation on Woyzeck the audience member should feel Woyzeck's humiliation more acutely. Many characters in the piece seem to derive endless delight from torturing Woyzeck, and so this interface was also designed with fun in mind. And yet, as the audience member isn't a character in the piece, he or she has a distance from the material that allows for critical thought as well. The tangible interfaces also serve as a way to integrate the gestures of the audience member into a gesture-based piece. The most powerful interactions for the audience member at Woyzeck are fittingly designed to be created through gesture.
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