Understanding performative behaviour within content-rich Digital Live Art

Research into human–computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally been concerned with users' abilities to complete tasks at desk-bound computers. However, recent research into Digital Live Art (Sheridan Citation2006) and audiences' engagement with interactive art focuses on ‘non task-based uses of computing’ (Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007, 13), such as the user experience. As computing becomes more mobile, wireless and tangible, there is a shift to understand the needs of ‘users as performers’ (ibid.). As a result, research has begun to draw on the methods and theories in the performing arts to better understand these needs. However, much of this research into interactive art focuses on playful or physical experiences of users, and fails to address work with social content and themes to be communicated. This is a critical analysis of Sheridan's framework for understanding performative behaviour with technologically mediated interactive art (Sheridan Citation2006; Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007). By applying the framework to works with rich thematic content, our findings indicate that the framework needs refining in order to better understand the ways in which users engage with interactive artworks of this kind.