Jumbled thoughts (but pretty important ones)

Am starting to research the brief. Have read an interesting Manovich essay on Totalitarian Interactivity which examines pseudo-interactive games among other things, and how even the most interactive applications that seem to allow for free will, such as games where you can control your character, have boundries, because everything that you can do, has been pre-written by the creator. The space has been created by another person, and all the options haave had boundries drawn. Every decision that you CAN make, has had the tools created by the creator. Similarily, websites are all narrow in terms of the choices a user has in terms of navigation. An argument against this can be taken from Barthes Death of the Author, in the sense that a reader interacts with websites and goes from site to site, reading texts in a way that only they can decide to do. They can take snippets here and there, writing there own text, in a sense, although I think exploring readerly/writerly texts might be going a little off subject here. But it brings to mind the idea that perhaps free individuality in interactivity can exist becuase the user had their own perceptions and reeactions that can be provoked by the creator ( in the sense of shock art installations perhaps) BUT the user will always have their OWN inner view of a work. In a way evrything can be interactive, in the sense that a user reacts mentally.
To start researching this project on a deeper level, I want to try and explore what 'interactive media' actually is. So....initial thoughts.....

basic interactive applications: touch screen: kiosks/dvds/websites/computers/software/games/virtual reality

more thought out examples of interactive media:
interactive installations (camille utterback)- these can allow the user to have a unique effect on the way a work actually appears. This could include using sensors to alter works based on users movements, or cameras to place the user into the piece.
the set-up of a piece of work: this could be done in a way that forces the user to observe the work in a certain way, e.g, projected on the ceiling(forces user to crane neck upwards..perhaps the projection of a piece could move so that then the user has to move themselves, and interact wihg the piece, to see the end)
3d glasses like the ones seen in the grande parade exhibition yesterday, would cause the user to interact with their movements(physical interactivity) to bend down and see the piece properly through the glasses.
mental interaction i.e, works that force the user to engage mentally

These are just a few ideas running throught my brain, not fully thought out in terms of how the ideas could be applied to this project yet, although I do like the idea of having something unusual, and not relying on just have a basic mouse clicking interactive applications. I'd like to go in the direction of forcing the user to interact either mentally with a storybook type animation, or to interact physically, perhaps using some kind of touch screen or cameras or sensors if it is possible for this project.

Other extremely random thoughts:

Digital mirrors. (as theorized by Ian Pearson from BT and loooked at in the last project) When these exist(I think a prototype already does) they will really encourage physical interactivity in the sense that users will be using eye movement, projections and psychical actions to interact with the mirror in a digital way.

Leading on from that.....I'm going to try and not let my ideas in this project get too theoretical, and keep the idea of digital media in mind. For example, psudeo interactivity (the theory that mental interaction can be applied to ANYTHING) is such a vast subject and I could really explore it, BUT, at the same time, I don't think doing a painting and then arguing about how it's interactive because it's forcing the user to interact mentally is going to be the right outcome for this project. Not that I'm suggesting there is a defined 'right outcome', but I think the project is asking us to look into all these ideas on interactivity, and come to some kind of synthesis of ideas that relate to digital media, since at the end of the day, that is the course we are on.

Memories- and having a digital experience that prompts the user to connect with their own memories might be a great way of demonstrating psudo interactivity, although I'd need to think alot about how to successfully approach this.

Userbility- is a VERY IMPORTANT factor in interactive media. I could approach this project in a sense that I explore these existing guidelines and restraints and try to alter/push the boundries regarding them.

Control- I could look a the project from the perspective of finding a solultion to the problem/question about exactly how in control a user is and explore ways that allow for more freedom of will. Or even create something that has the purpose of NOT allowing much freedom of will. But would that make it less interactive in a way.

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So, as I expect this post shows, I do have a LOT os ideas, but they are all pretty jumbled, so I'm going to plan out a rough time frame for what I need to get done by when in this project, and a rough starting structure of what do research. Which I'm going to start on now.