This blog post by Tom Igoe is basically a review of different physical computing or interactive media “themes.” These themes are different varieties of common physical computing projects. through the post he describes which ones have the most and least potential for artistic interpretation. As to not discourage the reader, Tigoe prefaces it by noting that despite the fact that these themes exist and can be defined, it is still possible to find originality within the different interpretations of the themes.
What I think is helpful about his descriptions of the “themes” is that he not only explains how they work and how they are limited, but also provides examples of how to get past their basic functionality and make them original and interesting.
I think the thing that I enjoyed most about this post is that it got me excited about making my final interactive media project. I will definitely look back at this post if i need some inspiration for a place to start from. It might even be fun to combine multiple themes, like the author describes at the end of the post.