Phemel: Phenomenal Element of Experience
Through two simple demonstrations using a physical—if metaphorical—model of the Phemel or “smallest unit of perception,” we will show how perception relates to interactivity. Technology mediates perception in powerful and often abstract ways. A thorough exploration of the process of perception and its role in making meaning can be a valuable experience for designers of performance tools intended to enhance the communicative capacity of performers.
For the first of the demonstrations, we take a physical model of the smallest perceptible unit of experience (an phenomenal element, or phemel) and connect it to a visually and aurally amplified version of the user. When the user approaches, they see a live video feed and hear an amplified version of what they are experiencing around them. Upon picking up the model of the phemel, the video feed zooms into one pixel of the image and the audio isolates one frequency of the sound to mirror the smallest unit of that user’s audiovisual experience. The model changes color with the pixel on the screen and what seemed like a random mapping is now clear; the pixel on the screen is the pixel in the user’s hands.
For the second demo, we deal with the concept of transference between senses. In interactivity, we commonly transfer one sensory input, such as touch, into another sensory output, such as sound. To demonstrate this transference, we are using the phemel model to again represent the smallest unit of an interactive experience. We have created a box which contains three inputs: a touch sensor, a microphone (a sound sensor), and a light sensor. For each input setting, the user sees an output on the phemel cube of a light getting brighter and dimmer, a sound getting higher and lower in pitch, and a vibrating motor being turned on and off. This represents the transference of each sensory input into the visual, aural, and tactile realms at the most basic level.
In breaking experience down into the smallest perceptible unit, we are trying to create a framework to understand interactivity and perception. Boiling our experience down to the smallest perceptible unit is important because it defines a limit–if the unit was any shorter in time or any smaller in space, you would not perceive it at all. At this limit, the meaningful content of our experience is at a minimum, the physical capabilities of our senses are tested, and internal states, such as whether or not we’re paying attention, make their biggest impact on our experience. Here is the realm of perceptual acuity–how our senses register input. We measure things in this realm in order to study the mechanisms of perception.
But the smallest perceptible unit also has correlates here in technology–the pixel, the sound grain, the tiny steps that motors make. And also the smallest movements, the tiniest events–marks on paper, notes in music, lumps of clay, strips of newsprint–these are also related at this level.
As we ascend the scale of complexity, we amass more and more of these small units over time and across space. We begin to associate them with each other and parse them into symbols. Through this process context emerges. Context is dependent on our ability (and choice) to associate and group symbols. At the level of the smallest perceptible unit of experience, this act of association may be a reflex. As we ascend in complexity, however, the act becomes increasingly intentional.
For the circuitry, the Phemel contains a custom-made circuit which powers an ATMega 168 chip, super-bright LED’s, a speaker producing square-wave tones, a vibrating motor, and an Xbee radio making the whole box wireless. The input box contains a force-sensing resistor, a small microphone, and a photo resistor connected to an Arduino. The software is created in Processing and ChucK.