Conclusion

Besides being the starting point of a group project, this workshop allowed the acquisition of the bases of working on the network. These four days enabled more precise ideas concerning the possibilities and adjustments needed to build real interactive installations. It appeared that indeed the network could be the vector of communication of an interactive artwork, either in the same or from different places. For that, we could discern the characteristics of the tools implemented during this working week:

Pure Data seems to be a tool more geared to the management of Intranet systems, allowing rapid test and control processes without approaching programming in the traditional sense. It is however essential, to familiarize oneself with its functioning if goals are to be achieved. It is a very good tool to pilot systems in real time.

PHP is easily included in a Web site and enables the interactivity between the 'client' and the controlled device to be controlled. The transfer of information, in ‘transparent’ form for the client, towards the device is simple, but taking into account its specificities, this language is not intended to carry out fast applications. PicoIP is now able to control the majority of the systems from the network thanks to the inputs/outputs card developed by LOEIL. It is however essential that information management should be fast and that part of the intelligence could directly be integrated to the device. The concept of shared intelligence is essential for an optimal operation of the system.

From a teaching point of view, it seems indispensable to establish periods of discovery of software and hardware tools without going into technical detail. Each participant, finding particular affinities with one or the other of the tools which are proposed, will go towards the one that suits them the best. Thus it seems fundamental to propose a maximum of possibilities, for that it is clear that free software are the best adapted, easy to find, usable by everyone and most of the time multi-platform, they enable the majority of the problems to be solved.

From a technical point of view, a certain number of points prevent true real time systems on the network being carried out. They are specific to the configuration of the school’s network and to the administration of this network. So that interactive installations can be accessible from outside, a certain work must be envisaged.

The continuity of the work achieved during this training course goes through a certain number of collective or individual initiatives. Some ideas have already been released, those are described below and draw up a non-exhaustive list of what remains to do to develop this practice: