Usman Haque @ London Met.

Usman Haque spoke about his understanding of the term 'interactive' and how his work is trying to achieve a genuine exhibition of 'interactivity' as he understands it.

Haque maintains the word interaction is used too loosely in descriptions of work that is merely reactive. For example an exhibition that boasts interactivity as it provides a response to the user, or the user can perform an action of which the system reacts too is not interacting truly as the reaction is predetermined as a response. Haque attempts to achieve a dialogue between his work and the user that is in no way predictable and not affected by anything of a fixed form. The aspirations of his systems are that they are entirely constructed by participants.

His most famous work is 'Burble', which I saw in Holland Park was an attempt to provide a raised level of public participation and enforce a greater responsibility to the observer. He descibed Burble as a system that prvoided the public with a chance to assemble the urban environment; the public's movements determining the colours and dynamic of the balloons. He maintained that in light of this the public have 'built it' and they are also 'designing it', he has merely provided them with the opportunity and instigated it.

The attitude towards interaction definately opened my eyes to more exciting possibilites of 'living' structures, installations and entities that interact independantly with their surroundings.

Haque Studios here
Burble here