Fostering ambiguity

Innovations in HCI tend to rely on exploring new technologies and novel forms of interaction. For decades artists such as Jenny Holzer have sought to provoke the public with art installations by repurposing public displays and exploring ambiguous messaging. Gaver argues that ambiguity can be intriguing, mysterious, and delightful, something that engages users and allows them to explore, discover, and interpret situations for themselves. In this paper we describe MStoryG, a public digital art installation that employs a decontextualized and repurposed airport split-flap display to support collaborative storytelling. In order to explore whether ambiguity attracts the glances of passersby and through curiosity invites interaction we devised a high fidelity software prototype that facilitated rapid deployment of experiments at two different locations. In addition to evaluating user engagement with the installation we define guidelines for others seeking to repurpose familiar objects in order to attract and engage passersby.