Problem Definition

My problem is to create a theory about a user interface that can be used to create the control system for a live interactive performance. There are many examples created explicitly for live performance some for specific media, others as "show control" programs. The main unsolved issues are ease of use, cost, sharing, and integration. Although systems are available, there is no way to build upon what others have done. The key, if performance makers don't want to repeat rebuilding things that have been done already is to have a way to share what has been done. This requires a general theory about the pieces that can be shared and a common language around talking about those pieces.

Current cultural knowledge is stored in commercial projects, individual programmers and artists. Reused pieces are often disparate non-cooperating pieces that must be cajoled into cooperating with each other. Other times, the experiences and memories of users are the reusable elements that have to be recreated or merged with other technologies.