Dissertation
Towards a Relational Approach to Understanding Interactions in Interactive Art
This thesis introduces a relational interaction model and a practical tool for describing, visualising and generating interactive dialogues.
- Author
- D. Xu
- Date
- 07 October 2025
- Links
- Thesis in Leiden Repository
The relational model starts an analysis by identifying the individual actors participating in the interaction, such as audience members or an art system, each referred to as an element. It then examines the actions performed by these elements and the resulting forms of communication. Building on the relational model, we developed a web-based tool--the Relational Modelling Tool (RMT)--to support its application. The formal structure of RMT enhances the precision of the modelling process, facilitates the analysis and comparisons of different forms of interaction, and can potentially inspire the creation of new forms of interaction with computational approaches. To demonstrate RMT’s capabilities, we applied it to describe a diverse range of interactive artworks with a focus on co-located audience interaction and more-than-human interaction involving both human and nonhuman participants. Furthermore, we also organised a workshop to evaluate RMT in modelling and generating interactive dialogues with a wider user group. By documenting the development, application, and evaluation of RMT, this thesis contributes to the study of interactive art and aims to inspire the creation of similar tools in other domains of human-computer interaction.