This is a final paper I wrote for the Interaction Culture class at Indiana University.
ABSTRACT
As Interaction Designers, two of the most important things that one needs to consider are the experience and also the audience being designed for. The presentation of the cultural expression is dependent on the presentation style and a thorough understanding of the audience. This paper aims at giving a close phenomenological understanding of a highly successful photography exhibition by India’s most renowned photographer, Raghu Rai. In the later part of the paper, from these points and an overall experience point of view, it is aimed to generate points for a framework for its application in Interaction Design.
Author Keywords
Phenomenology, experience, exhibition, photography, interpretation, culture
Excerpts from the paper
Interaction Design and HCI are constantly seeking for analogies from the established fields like computer science, the cognitive sciences, and other disciplines like sociology, anthropology, critical theory and philosophy. There has also been considerable efforts in trying to get an understanding from film theory and looking at experiences in film.
Photography exhibitions on the other hand are highly subjective. It is therefore more likely that any critical accounts of such exhibitions are phenomenological in nature. There is always the vision of a photographer that is being conveyed. And more often that not there is a mismatch between the intent of the photographer and the intent with which the viewer interprets it. There is also the element of time that comes into the picture when doing an analysis of the exhibition.
Conclusion
Feelings and sensibility cannot be rationally expressed in words. It can only be experienced.
Any exhibition of this kind, not only expanded the horizons for what can be exhibited in the Indian market today, but also helped in understanding what goes on in a photographer’s mind and his intentionality. Hence the movement to shift the authority of the experience from the museum, to the visitor is important.
The experience of an exhibition is primarily phenomenological and my understanding of it would be
totally different as compared to someone else. The analysis of a photography exhibition as opposed to a film gives the extra dimension of time to analyze a frame, as the events are not unfolding real-time. This results in a more phenomenological understanding of the various aspects that I have touched upon.
As mentioned earlier, to a large extent, the levels of interaction that are evident are more on a visual and
cognitive level unlike an interaction with a website where there is more digital interactivity and of a physical product where there is physical interactions. Any artistic or designerly creation in general left in a space is open for interpretation. These interpretations are to be reinforced by the feedback from the viewers and what they have to say about it, their interpretations and how closely they are able to relate to what the photographer intended to in the first place. This implies that a thorough close understanding of
any design, art can be highly beneficial. With this I hope to have my interpretation of the exhibition
and how as an artist visiting another artist’s exhibition re-inforce the things that are in my lifeworlds and the way I think about it. It is hoped that Interaction Designers can learn a lot by the analysis of experiences of photography exhibitions.