Virtual media open unlimited space, they handle the disintegration of space and the narratation of non-linear stories. Changing from observers into co-actors people can interfere in their virtual environment and influence it. The interface becomes the very heart of the work, the key to the entire apparatus that it drives. Interactive systems introduce multisensory experience, potentially mobilizing all the senses. But as ingenious as an interface may be, it cannot be reduced to its instrumental or ergonomic features, for it is also the nexus of metaphorical and conceptual issues.
Interaction is communication in real time.
Digital media emphasize the idea of interactivity, people's own experience of simulation on their body. The body is exposed to a new perception of space. Yet interactive operating procedures and interface experimentation also provide the possibility of rethinking the very relationships between sense organs, rethinking their roles. Strauss studied Architecture at the Academie of Fine Arts Berlin and has held teaching positions at the HDK and at the KHM Media Art School Cologne. A main question thereby is which metaphors are we developing to organise this information and which metaphors will be developped to navigate and interact in this infospace.