Into ‘inter’: the between in interacting

Abstract

The ‘inter’ in interaction is often passed over as merely a point of contact between two pre-determinated entities such as sender and receiver, or user and computer. What would it mean to take the ‘inter’ seriously as a generative field that preconditions these endpoints? Instead of being conceived as a place to pass across, this paper considers the inter as a ‘betweenness’ that can be cultivated through techniques of relation. The paper looks at several examples of collaborative performance, image-making and research creation, including collaborative projects in which the author has been involved. It proposes that techniques of relation that are both rigorous and improvisational and that allow intensities to emerge between all elements allows betweenness its due. And allowing this durational collaborative relationality to emerge also opens artistic practices onto new modes of expression.

Keywords

• interaction
• in-between
• immediation