Lowering the Usability Entry Barrier to Interactive Poetics Experimentation in Dance

摘要

This paper presents four correlated studies focused on (i) finding out whether performance artists were interested in exploring interactive poetics based on mocap technologies, (ii) what the entry barriers were preventing such exploration and (iii) how to lower such barriers. Data from an original survey of one hundred and twelve (112) artists show that most of the respondents want to use motion capture (mocap) technologies to explore new poetic possibilities (Study 1). Only a few have had a chance to do so, however, because using the current mocap operating software often requires programming knowledge, and these programs do not offer built-in integration with mocap sensors (Study 2). This leads artists to depend on collaboration with IT experts, increasing the efforts and costs of their creative endeavors. We then executed a participatory design of 300 h with four dancers and one musician from a local contemporary dance/performance group (Study 3). This study resulted in a performance and some guidelines for lowering the usability entry barrier of such mocap-enabled systems, with a special focus on innovating experimentation with interactive poetics in the performing arts. Aiming to validate these guidelines, we built marine, an entry-level system that demonstrates one of the possible ways of implementing them. Following this design-prototyping-testing phase, a formal evaluation occurred based on comparative tests and interviews with ten dancers (Study 4). The results showed that marine improved effectiveness, efficiency, engagement and ease of learning, as well as provided a more pleasant user experience when compared to visual programming software.