Performing Fictions: Interaction and Depiction

Abstract

This paper presents a method for analysing an aspect of interaction that can help us understand how users can feel that they are part of a work. I argue that interaction can be a form of depiction, causing the user to imagine both her perceptual actions and her manipulation of the work as being fictional as well as actual. This produces an ontological fusion between the actual and the fictional. In brief analyses of three interactive works, I suggest how this framework can enable a better understanding of some aspects of interactive art and literature.