The Expressive Space of IDS-as-Art

Much of the research and development effort in the IDS community is guided by a design approach, according to which user desires, expectations and agency are central. This approach may place unnecessary limitations on the design space. I argue for the validity and significance of an alternative, expressive approach, which may be more appealing to artists, and offer some formal parameters of IDS-as-Art. These open up for authors the ability to explore the creation of vastly complex and dynamic storyworlds that highlight contingency and probability; and the possibility of manipulating agency as subject matter to implicate users, through userly performance, in the storyworld’s meaning. IDS can thus offer users an opportunity to reflect upon various aspects of their performance, including un- and subintentional aspects.