The Stanford Humanities Seminar on Interactive Media presents a
Special Lecture by Prof. Helgi Schweizer
On Natural Interactivity
December 4, 1996 at 4:00 PM
Stanford Humanities Center Annex
Abstract
Before the term interactivity received the technical meaning it has
now, there was another meaning, one that arose in a social context.
Action, a thrust originating in the individual and directed at the
world as passive recipient, was juxtaposed to interaction which
stood for a balanced kind of conduct in-between two or more
equivalent agents. Concretely, interaction was seen as naturally
occurring among human beings. Biological and psychological research
amply have demonstrated that inter-activity is an essential
ingredient of being human.
Interaction establishes the relation between equal parties, and is
therefore, or has been so far, confined to the conduct of humans.
Contrary to the cybernetic paradigm -- which sees interaction as the
coupling of two or more actions in feedback or other loop -- the
author concludes from his experimental work on interactive
decisionmaking that interaction is rather a new and distinct form of
action originating in a communal "we."
Interaction has an implicitly spatial and temporal component, that
is, it develops a characteristic rhythmic form. The potential to be
integrated into such a form falls off -- more or less -- with the
square of the distance of the agents involved. The well-known
importance of proximity and face-to-face for natural interaction is
another aspect that becomes illuminated by the author's experimental
work.
Communities can be understood as complicated networks of natural
proximity relations: they have developed over the course of
thousands of years and proven to be successful. Media -- especially
electronic media -- have arrived only recently and interfere in
profound (and often irresponsible) ways with society's natural order
of proximity.
References
- Peter N. Kugler
Information, Natural Law and the Self-Assembly of Rhythmic Processes. LEA 1989.
- Helgi-Jon Schweizer
- A New Method in Diagnostics and Physical Therapy Relevant to Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 1977. Project Report to Messerschmidt-BUlkow-Blohm. (in German)
- Analysis of the Temporal Behavior of Fast Iterative Processes. 1978. Report to German Research Foundation (in German)
- Functional Theory of Nervous Systems. 1981. Monograph (in German)
- Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Consciousness. 1986 Conference Proceedings. (in German)
- Nessi 1.0 and Nessi Handbook 1986. (Software Publication)
- System for Simulaton of Neuronal Networks (PolyNessi
2).1989. (Software Publication)
- H-J. Schweizer and P.M.V. NavI. A Simple Model for the Generation
of Wavelike Activities in Neural Networks. 1980.
- Supervised Theses
- 1994 Experimental Investigations to Adaptation and Storage of a Sensori-Motor Meter. (S. Gumbold) (in German)
- 1995 A Systematic Presentation of Current Rhythm Research with Special Considerations Paid to the Innsbruck Tapping Experiments
from 1973-1976. (in German)
- 1995 Rhythm and Time in Psychology. (J. Kraller).
Brief Biography
Helgi-Jon Schweizer is Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Austria. His current work concerns the study of interactive decision processes, interpersonal coordination, social decision making and electronic media. His research has ranged from investigations into the temporal structure of behavior and rhythmic interactive coupling to a functional theory of nervous systems.
He has also designed an experimental theater space, "Sonosphere" with
the Residenz Theater, Munich, Germany; co-founded the Institute for Environmental Design in Munich; and founded the Artist Group SAAT.
Professor Schweizer will attend the joint IMG-DN2000 seminar on December 11 to
carry on his conversation with the workshop's members, and to participate in a more
general discussion about media. This second session will be held at the Humanities Center Annex,
as usual, at 4:00.
30 November 1996 Back to
IMG home page
xinwei@leland.stanford.edu