Uncanny Interactions: A Digital Medium for Networked E.motion

Abstract

Séa.nce: a networked glossalalia is a collaborative project involving a sound artist, visual artist, and a remotely-located interaction designer. The aim of the collaboration was to make a multiuser live performance work for local and remote players, in a work that asked how it would look, sound, and feel to interact in a networked séance environment that channels the e.motional relays within the network (the dot in ‘e.motion’ emphasises the moving aspects). This paper focuses on lessons learned during the process of designing uncanny interactions, dealing with both the piece itself, the collaborative process which created it, and how each of these informs the other. In the case of Séa.nce the work itself is a creative collaboration, and the process of creating it is an e.motional network.