Experience design, interactive art environments and the sense of becoming

Experience Design is a contemporary form of design, which appertains to the field of interaction design. In relation to Interactive art environments, it suggests that potentialities are actualized by those actively participating within physical, virtual and mixed works. It could be argued that every design approach is a dynamic process of making experiences; nonetheless we do not `design experiences´ we design for them. An experience emerges from a variety of potentialities, a significant part of which cannot be organized and predetermined by the design procedure; the outcome is considerably depended on matters beyond its design. In the frames of digitally interactive artworks people interact and actively participate in the course of an event. It is Aristotle that introduces becoming as a concept that describes our experience of interaction with the world, expressing the notion of change in the course of life, the ceaseless evolution in space and time. Consensus as to what constitutes effective experience design, this paper argues that understanding both design and experience as verbs, rather than nouns, could help our understanding of the practice. This paper transcends the boundaries of art and design theory; it puts emphasis on the fact that becoming cannot be predetermined, and how the notions of design, art, experience, becoming and space are intertwined in the subjective experience of artworks.