- Interactive Art and Embodiment | Introduction: Art Philosophy
- Digital Art and Meaning: Interactive Installations
Both texts provide an initial philosophical and conceptual framework that we can use to understand, view and begin to think about our own experiments in interactive art. I think that contextualizing interactive art by comparing it to somewhat similar phenomena like performance art, chance art, new media art, behavioral art, etc. is also helpful in understanding what “makes” interactive art interactive, how it differs from other forms of art, and how we can begin to define it.
The use of technology is integral to interactive art, but we are urged not to think of interactive art solely through the technology it employs, but rather the situations and events it creates: “If we explain what interactive art is primarily through technology, then we will comprehend it as merely a technological object. We should, rather, approach what interactive art does – and what we do when it frames our moving-thinking-feeling.”
In thinking about defining interactive art, an interesting question was raised in the introduction of Interactive Art and Embodiment: “Is interaction multiple in its engagements (relational) or a one-to-one reaction (programmed)?” Before interactive art, the meaning of an artwork existed in the dialogue between the object and the viewer. Now, with interactive art, the meaning of the artwork is instead created from that dialogue, and is dependent on it. Whether those interactions are multiple and relational, or singular and programmed, it is within those interactions that the meaning of an artwork is created–but do each of these “approaches” have different implications?
Another interesting aspect discussed in Interactive Installations is the idea of producing “space-times of interhuman experiences”, “spaces where we can elaborate alternative forms of sociability” (Bourriaud) and where we use interactive art to create a set of relational experiences, allowing the audience to come together to create meaning collectively. The author provides some examples of such interactions, such as Text Rain (1999), RE:Positioning Fear (1997). I want to keep thinking further about this “interhuman” element of interactive installations as I begin to brainstorm ideas for my midterm project.