Co-Authored Narrative Experience: Affective, Embodied Interaction through Combining the Diachronic with the Synchronistic

Abstract

Examination of perception tends to look at senses in isolation, but Neuroaesthetics and Gestalt design principles treat perception as an embodied synaesthetic experience. The Diasynchronoscope project takes time-based techniques from animation and converts them to spatiality, animating static objects through projected light and creating transient visual cues that, when combined with sound, demand selective attention. The work challenges the use of passive nouns to describe participants such as ”˜user’ or ”˜audience’ or ”˜viewer’ and instead asks participants to recognise their true position to be that of ”˜exegete,’ reading and interpreting the gaps in space and time. Their interaction with the work provides narrative meaning transcending the static and hidden, to create a Gestalt systemic whole, making each participant a truly immersed co-creator. Using audience analysis, the paper evaluates the work against more traditional media such as screen-based visuals and makes the case for further research into somatic perception of dynamics.