I recently watched someone sitting on the plinth, looking bored and as I did it seemed to me that I was just expecting too much. By putting a person on the plinth, the expectations the viewer brings to the experience is altered so no longer is it enough to simply look at the figure knowing they are capable of more than statuesque silence.

Participatory interaction

Another plinth that changes the role of the viewer into that of a participant is Greyworld’s “Monument” behind the Tate Modern. In this case the viewer is mimicked by the figure, which tracks their movement using cameras and strikes a pose in response. It is not obvious that this statue is anything out of the ordinary. There are no signs or reasons to interact, so I assume that was a deliberate design choice to create surprise although it was either broken or taking a break when I tried it out and nothing could rouse the statue. The result was a interesting piece of interactive design in concept alone.

Interaction values

These two plinths tried to do something different and succeeded but also lost a lot of people along the way. It’s an interesting reminder that when the context is changed one also needs to consider what the viewer user participant brings with them in terms of expectation as this will alter their resulting experience.