Grid Box

'GridBox' is an audiovisual composition that explores the notion of play in the interactive experience.

The piece utilises a 3x3 grid as an interface for manipulating user-defined sequences of non-musical sounds. These can range from subtle heart-beats to high pitch blasts. Which sounds occur where are determined by adding or subtracting the shading in each part of the grid and/or manipulating the position of the grid lines to create the audiovisual environment.

The interface allows the user to apply explicit actions, that will effect an evolving acoustic sequence. However, the current state of the sequence itself will determine how each action effects the audio performance, subverting the explicit decision making of the user and giving rise to a sense of uneasy tmetic anxiety over how much control the user wields through command of the interface.

This is an important aspect of the work, for though the interface itself does explicitly conform to both the traditional 'point & click' paradigm of interactivity and the domination of the X/Y axis in the monitor display (and therefore may demonstrate a sense of redundancy in its mastery), the use of this traditional paradigm in the evolution of the sequence only serves to highlight and play with its entropic nature. In 'GridBox', a deliberate action may not have obviouse deliberate consequences. Actions may have immediate results or be indecipherable in terms of their specific nature and timing in the evolving composition.

This artefact is part of a series of pieces exploring the formation of narratives through the use of a variety of interactive devices.

The start point of this enquiry was an investigation into the manipulation of specific commands found in Macromedia Director that govern cursor control (such as mouseDown), and screen properties (such as locV and locH), and then explore ways of challenging the redundant nature of these pardigms.