What is interactive digital art?
How does it interact with people?
What is the key feature of this kind of art?
What motivate the artists to make such work?
How do these works change the definition of the art objected?
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Final Research Paper
Interactivity, interactive art and interactive technology, these kinds of phrases are not only about the content of new technology, it also includes cultural characteristics of an era. “Interactivity” not only brings changes to ways of communication, but also brings changes to ways of reading, thinking and even lifestyle. As internet is widely used and facilitates communication, the use of the English word “interactive” has been increased. And this word in the very beginning was about electronic calculation and the exchange of messages. It was an abstract term describes the way of message exchange and had no relation with literature, art or aesthetics. From here we can get a conclusion that the so called “interactive art” means a way of artistic expression that gives a platform for sharing and exchange of message.
Some scholars claim that “interactive art” is a kind of “digital art”. This kind of art depends very much on the digital technology for information exchange. Interactive digital art has its trace from the development of a few of artistic forms, such as Dada, Fluxus and conceptual art. It is different from the traditional art form, such as painting and dancing, in the way that it is more commercial. It is created to appeal the mass, so artwork may not really reflect the artists’ personal style, but reflect the ones of public. Although artists may borrow the idea of traditional art form in making interactive digital art, the aim and motivation behind is different from that of the past.
For one thing that interactive digital art can excite the spectators is that, it allows the spectators to get involved into the creation of artwork, which is impossible in the traditional art form. “If and when you interact, you interact with the whole of the work and the navigation is part of the content”(Gardiner 60) [1] In this case, the experience of spectators is personal and cannot be verified. It depends on the actual viewing and interacting with the artwork. The way of art looking has also changed. For traditional artwork, spectators decode the hidden narrative behind, and they need a certain level of knowledge of art history in order to do it. The spectators of interactive digital art is at the position of post-structuralist , where “the work is an empty sign and the viewer composes his story of the artwork through the actual viewing; the meaning rests solely in the viewer’s mind”(Gardiner 62) [2]. The artwork is a co-creation of spectators and artists.
In the concern of technology, interactive digital art does not purely work with digital device, but it also needs coordination of other new media, such as holographic, laser, luminous tube, kinetic art and video. These elements all together add the fourth and even fifth dimensions to the artwork, namely the “time” and “sound”. The spectator is no longer in the presence of a single entity, a single rhythm, but can now perceive many changes, comparable to listening to an orchestra versus a single instrument. We are able to have a grasp of multimorphism, multichromatism, multidirectionality, and multirhythmicality. It widens the use of forms and colors, particularly with the development of virtual space. It can satisfy the desire for artistic innovation and eliminate the burden of traditional cultural forms. It can make the accidental or random subversive in order to create an artistic shock and to rupture the systematic and the symmetrical.
Roy Ascott is an artist. He was one of those who concern about total spectator participation. He wants to abolish the strict antinomy between action and contemplation in art. Modern art, he claims, is characterized by behaviorist tendency in which system and process are important factors. He has coined the term technoetic aesthetics to describe the specific relations between art, mind and technology. The technoetic aesthetics is not only supposed to enable us to explore consciousness in new ways but may lead us to distinctly new forms of art, new qualities of mind, and new constructions of reality. According to Ascott, consciousness is now an important topic of research in both science and art. Science has faced many difficulties in explaining consciousness. While consciousness for artists is something more to be experience than precisely explained, it has faced its challenge too. The problem is subjective, yet objective at the same time, quite difficult to be defined. It is under this background that, the artists of interactive digital art always feel that they have the responsibility to help the public to reveal their subconsciousness. The artworks are to make them aware something worth for notice yet does not gain much of people’s notice in daily life. The exhibition of Luminous Echo leads spectators to reexamine the city’s relationship with the self, by stimulating their aural and visual senses. Sound, light and images in our city are coming at us from all directions and attacking our senses. These stimulations may over burden our senses and even dull our senses. The artists in this project believe the sound and light in our city are not random or chaotic, instead they are cleverly constructed marketing strategies. Thus, this exhibition is to lead spectators to be aware of this phenomenon.
Dune 4.1 is an interactive landscape which reacts to the sounds and motion of people passing by. So by reacting to your sounds and motion, spectators become conscious of his dynamic relation with the surrounding space. There are technical devices used, include microphones and sensors which are installed inside of the artwork. And there are hundred of fibres that is used to react to movement and sound made by spectators. Another installation, Lumunescent Rain, it has IR camera and untrasonic distance sensors used for tracking. They allow light bars to have their data translated into sound. Spectators can play on the light bars like harp and control 4-tone harmony volumes by putting their hands in midair. Spectators can experience both the virtual world of visualization and auralization. Small Fish allow us to interact with 15 different music pieces in a game-like manner, with computer mouse as the input device. This installation is a correlation between concepts of interaction, sound and image, which are to create a structure of abstract musical meaning. It applies the use of CD-ROM, MIDI synthesizer sound system and a data projector. The interaction is to move visual object on the screen, which will generate musical sequences according to the location of these objects. The images generated by the Small Fish interactive music software are projected onto the screen through a ceiling projector, while the generated sounds are proceeded through a MIDI synthesizer and a sound system.
Virtual Reality is another kind of interactive digital art gives us an experience of entering into the simulation of a three-dimensional environment, it integrate the observer in a 360-degree space of illusion with unity of time and place. Krueger was the first artist to focus on interactive digital art as a composition medium. In the process, he invented many of the basic concepts of virtual reality by developing full-body participation in computer-created telecommunication experiences. He also coined the term artificial reality in 1973 to describe the expression of this concept. Since 1969, Krueger has created interactive environments in which the computer perceives the visitors’ movements through sensory floors and video cameras, and then responds through electronic sounds and environmental scale displays. Krueger is especially concern on human-machine interaction as an art form. And it was later even published as Artificial Reality.
In the realm of interactive digital art, Virtual Reality is still in its early stage of development. The major reason is that the technology has not yet catched up with the complexity of human’s imagination. However, with the introduction of this kind of art, it challenges the philosophical issue of dualism – the relation between the mind and the body. Our mind may not be affected by our physical body anymore, and even lose control of it, when the path of imagination is led by the digital environment of Virtual Reality, and that we are immerse into the artwork.
Within contemporary Western society, the body is thought to function like a machine but to exist independently of technology. The idea that humans and technology are separate entities is problematic. In fact, technology can be seen as a natural extension of the body and the manifestation of our unique intelligence. Human being elevated their position by using tools, rather than through an inborn biological superiority. There are no other creatures except human can create extension of the mind to this degree. Scientific investigations are generally concerned with details of the body under the microscope and nano-molecule. On the other hand, artists have taken a look from a different perspective, considering the corporeality from philosophical issue. Ex Machina is an exhibition from Japan and UK. With different social, cultural and philosophical traditions, the artists share their views of interface between human body, mind and machine. The ttile refers to the absolute distinction between the spiritual and the corporeal, a concept which has great influence on Western philosophy and on aesthetic and scientific discourses since the 17th century.
Reference:
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
Benjamin, W. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," (trans. H. Zohn), in Dayton, E. (ed.), Peterborough: Broadview, 1998
Kempt, M. The Science of Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press
[1] Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
[2] Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
Some scholars claim that “interactive art” is a kind of “digital art”. This kind of art depends very much on the digital technology for information exchange. Interactive digital art has its trace from the development of a few of artistic forms, such as Dada, Fluxus and conceptual art. It is different from the traditional art form, such as painting and dancing, in the way that it is more commercial. It is created to appeal the mass, so artwork may not really reflect the artists’ personal style, but reflect the ones of public. Although artists may borrow the idea of traditional art form in making interactive digital art, the aim and motivation behind is different from that of the past.
For one thing that interactive digital art can excite the spectators is that, it allows the spectators to get involved into the creation of artwork, which is impossible in the traditional art form. “If and when you interact, you interact with the whole of the work and the navigation is part of the content”(Gardiner 60) [1] In this case, the experience of spectators is personal and cannot be verified. It depends on the actual viewing and interacting with the artwork. The way of art looking has also changed. For traditional artwork, spectators decode the hidden narrative behind, and they need a certain level of knowledge of art history in order to do it. The spectators of interactive digital art is at the position of post-structuralist , where “the work is an empty sign and the viewer composes his story of the artwork through the actual viewing; the meaning rests solely in the viewer’s mind”(Gardiner 62) [2]. The artwork is a co-creation of spectators and artists.
In the concern of technology, interactive digital art does not purely work with digital device, but it also needs coordination of other new media, such as holographic, laser, luminous tube, kinetic art and video. These elements all together add the fourth and even fifth dimensions to the artwork, namely the “time” and “sound”. The spectator is no longer in the presence of a single entity, a single rhythm, but can now perceive many changes, comparable to listening to an orchestra versus a single instrument. We are able to have a grasp of multimorphism, multichromatism, multidirectionality, and multirhythmicality. It widens the use of forms and colors, particularly with the development of virtual space. It can satisfy the desire for artistic innovation and eliminate the burden of traditional cultural forms. It can make the accidental or random subversive in order to create an artistic shock and to rupture the systematic and the symmetrical.
Roy Ascott is an artist. He was one of those who concern about total spectator participation. He wants to abolish the strict antinomy between action and contemplation in art. Modern art, he claims, is characterized by behaviorist tendency in which system and process are important factors. He has coined the term technoetic aesthetics to describe the specific relations between art, mind and technology. The technoetic aesthetics is not only supposed to enable us to explore consciousness in new ways but may lead us to distinctly new forms of art, new qualities of mind, and new constructions of reality. According to Ascott, consciousness is now an important topic of research in both science and art. Science has faced many difficulties in explaining consciousness. While consciousness for artists is something more to be experience than precisely explained, it has faced its challenge too. The problem is subjective, yet objective at the same time, quite difficult to be defined. It is under this background that, the artists of interactive digital art always feel that they have the responsibility to help the public to reveal their subconsciousness. The artworks are to make them aware something worth for notice yet does not gain much of people’s notice in daily life. The exhibition of Luminous Echo leads spectators to reexamine the city’s relationship with the self, by stimulating their aural and visual senses. Sound, light and images in our city are coming at us from all directions and attacking our senses. These stimulations may over burden our senses and even dull our senses. The artists in this project believe the sound and light in our city are not random or chaotic, instead they are cleverly constructed marketing strategies. Thus, this exhibition is to lead spectators to be aware of this phenomenon.
Dune 4.1 is an interactive landscape which reacts to the sounds and motion of people passing by. So by reacting to your sounds and motion, spectators become conscious of his dynamic relation with the surrounding space. There are technical devices used, include microphones and sensors which are installed inside of the artwork. And there are hundred of fibres that is used to react to movement and sound made by spectators. Another installation, Lumunescent Rain, it has IR camera and untrasonic distance sensors used for tracking. They allow light bars to have their data translated into sound. Spectators can play on the light bars like harp and control 4-tone harmony volumes by putting their hands in midair. Spectators can experience both the virtual world of visualization and auralization. Small Fish allow us to interact with 15 different music pieces in a game-like manner, with computer mouse as the input device. This installation is a correlation between concepts of interaction, sound and image, which are to create a structure of abstract musical meaning. It applies the use of CD-ROM, MIDI synthesizer sound system and a data projector. The interaction is to move visual object on the screen, which will generate musical sequences according to the location of these objects. The images generated by the Small Fish interactive music software are projected onto the screen through a ceiling projector, while the generated sounds are proceeded through a MIDI synthesizer and a sound system.
Virtual Reality is another kind of interactive digital art gives us an experience of entering into the simulation of a three-dimensional environment, it integrate the observer in a 360-degree space of illusion with unity of time and place. Krueger was the first artist to focus on interactive digital art as a composition medium. In the process, he invented many of the basic concepts of virtual reality by developing full-body participation in computer-created telecommunication experiences. He also coined the term artificial reality in 1973 to describe the expression of this concept. Since 1969, Krueger has created interactive environments in which the computer perceives the visitors’ movements through sensory floors and video cameras, and then responds through electronic sounds and environmental scale displays. Krueger is especially concern on human-machine interaction as an art form. And it was later even published as Artificial Reality.
In the realm of interactive digital art, Virtual Reality is still in its early stage of development. The major reason is that the technology has not yet catched up with the complexity of human’s imagination. However, with the introduction of this kind of art, it challenges the philosophical issue of dualism – the relation between the mind and the body. Our mind may not be affected by our physical body anymore, and even lose control of it, when the path of imagination is led by the digital environment of Virtual Reality, and that we are immerse into the artwork.
Within contemporary Western society, the body is thought to function like a machine but to exist independently of technology. The idea that humans and technology are separate entities is problematic. In fact, technology can be seen as a natural extension of the body and the manifestation of our unique intelligence. Human being elevated their position by using tools, rather than through an inborn biological superiority. There are no other creatures except human can create extension of the mind to this degree. Scientific investigations are generally concerned with details of the body under the microscope and nano-molecule. On the other hand, artists have taken a look from a different perspective, considering the corporeality from philosophical issue. Ex Machina is an exhibition from Japan and UK. With different social, cultural and philosophical traditions, the artists share their views of interface between human body, mind and machine. The ttile refers to the absolute distinction between the spiritual and the corporeal, a concept which has great influence on Western philosophy and on aesthetic and scientific discourses since the 17th century.
Reference:
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
Benjamin, W. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," (trans. H. Zohn), in Dayton, E. (ed.), Peterborough: Broadview, 1998
Kempt, M. The Science of Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press
[1] Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
[2] Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Bibliography
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 200
This book is quite useful to my research, as it has explained the interactive digital art of recently years and the modes of thought.
Huhtamo, Erkki. ''Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland. <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
This website guides us on the way of looking at interactive arts, but goes a bit too philosophical and in too much in details. But it is still a good reference.
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
This website gives useful examples on the artworks built built by the software Processing, and the characteriestics of this software.
Wells, Paul. The fundamentals of Animation. London: AVA Publishing SA, 2006
This book mainly focus on the applications and outcomes of animation. It can be used for quick references.
"Interactive led Wall. " HHATV. COM . 2007 <http://www.hhatv.com/animation-videos39251.htm >
We can see an example of human motion interacting with digital media in this site.
National University of Singapore. Age Of the new "invaders". NUS Research Gallery. 7 March 2007.
<http://www.nus.edu.sg/corporate/research/gallery/research97.htm>
This site includes Mr Khoo Eng Tat's remarkable comments on intereactive digital arts.
"Drum". HHATV.COM . 2007 <http://www.hhatv.com/animation-videos39369.htm>
This site shows an interesting interactive digital art.
Benjamin, W. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," (trans. H. Zohn), in Dayton, E. (ed.), Peterborough: Broadview, 1998
This book gives us a clear explanation on the problems faced by the development of digital arts
Kempt, M. The Science of Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
This book does not talk much about digital arts, but it is good for reference.
This book is quite useful to my research, as it has explained the interactive digital art of recently years and the modes of thought.
Huhtamo, Erkki. ''Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland. <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
This website guides us on the way of looking at interactive arts, but goes a bit too philosophical and in too much in details. But it is still a good reference.
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
This website gives useful examples on the artworks built built by the software Processing, and the characteriestics of this software.
Wells, Paul. The fundamentals of Animation. London: AVA Publishing SA, 2006
This book mainly focus on the applications and outcomes of animation. It can be used for quick references.
"Interactive led Wall. " HHATV. COM . 2007 <http://www.hhatv.com/animation-videos39251.htm >
We can see an example of human motion interacting with digital media in this site.
National University of Singapore. Age Of the new "invaders". NUS Research Gallery. 7 March 2007.
<http://www.nus.edu.sg/corporate/research/gallery/research97.htm>
This site includes Mr Khoo Eng Tat's remarkable comments on intereactive digital arts.
"Drum". HHATV.COM . 2007 <http://www.hhatv.com/animation-videos39369.htm>
This site shows an interesting interactive digital art.
Benjamin, W. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," (trans. H. Zohn), in Dayton, E. (ed.), Peterborough: Broadview, 1998
This book gives us a clear explanation on the problems faced by the development of digital arts
Kempt, M. The Science of Art, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
This book does not talk much about digital arts, but it is good for reference.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Quotations
"Contrary to the traditional arts, the player's experience is strictly personal and generally cannot be verified. It depends on the actual viewing and interacting with the artwork. "
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004 (p.62)
"If and when you interact, you interact with the whole of the work and the navigation is part of the content."
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004 (p.60)
"Interactive art is still most often seen in the context of the computer world (e.g. Siggraph art show) or the festivals and institutions dedicated to bridging the gap between art, technology and design (e.g. Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria). "
Huhtamo, Erkki. ''Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland. 25 Oct 2007 <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
"In the mass media, interactive art is often featured in the context of science and technology, rather than art and culture."
Huhtamo, Erkki. "Seven Ways of misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland.
25 Oct 2007 <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
"Processing is very fast at manipulating data on-the-fly, especially with regard to input from video cameras. To recreate the same effect in a different tool such as Flash would be very difficult. "
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners, Inc. 25 Oct 2007. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
"there is a really strong community behind Processing, helped by the fact that Processing is free for everyone to download and play with, and it’s open-source."
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners, Inc. 25 Oct 2007. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004 (p.62)
"If and when you interact, you interact with the whole of the work and the navigation is part of the content."
Gardiner, Hazel. eds. Digital Art History. Portland: Intellect, 2004 (p.60)
"Interactive art is still most often seen in the context of the computer world (e.g. Siggraph art show) or the festivals and institutions dedicated to bridging the gap between art, technology and design (e.g. Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria). "
Huhtamo, Erkki. ''Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland. 25 Oct 2007 <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
"In the mass media, interactive art is often featured in the context of science and technology, rather than art and culture."
Huhtamo, Erkki. "Seven Ways of misunderstanding Interactive Arts". University of Lapland.
25 Oct 2007 <http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html>
"Processing is very fast at manipulating data on-the-fly, especially with regard to input from video cameras. To recreate the same effect in a different tool such as Flash would be very difficult. "
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners, Inc. 25 Oct 2007. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
"there is a really strong community behind Processing, helped by the fact that Processing is free for everyone to download and play with, and it’s open-source."
Yes! Communication. "Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step". PingMag. 31 March 2006. Risa Partners, Inc. 25 Oct 2007. <http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/>
animation, interactive art and video
This is a net art.Players can use the mouse to try four directions with different semantics, creatures, images and sounds.
It shows the complexity of digital art and also the way we interact with it
link-> http://www.secrettechnology.com/mouse/undirection.html
This artwork is built by Processing, called "Valence"(by Ben Fry).It takes bits of English sentences from around the web and attempts to map the relationship of words on a 3D sphere.
Link -> http://processing.org/exhibition/works/001/index_link.html
This one is also built by Processing, called Alphabot55 (by Nikita Pashenkov )It shows typography.
Press any letters on the keyboard, and it will change shapes.
Link -> http://processing.org/exhibition/works/004/index_link.html
Another artwork built by ProcessingThe movement of the cartoon and the lines drawn on ice are handled according to Maths.
Maths is important in the programming environment of this software.
Link -> http://processing.org/exhibition/works/europa/index_link.html
This artwork is named "Simple Grid", it is also built by Processing
It demonstrates "digital and interactive".
Link -> http://web.media.mit.edu/~jeevan/oldportfolio/pages/Recursive_grid_study_no_1/applet/grid_from_digi_content.html
Video is also an important art form in Digital Age."SYNAPTIC BLISS" is a series of artwork explores ideas of a digital consciousness with multiple perspectives and scales, something related to the organic and the artificial.
In this video, Villette, the theme is about four seasons and cycles of life.
Link -> http://www.azizcucher.net/villette.php
Another video, named "Journey to Rice" , is done by drawing beforehand
Link -> http://www.hhatv.com/animation-videos63639.htm
Links
Net Art
http://www.secrettechnology.com/works/everything.htm
Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Art
http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html
Airport exhibiting digital art
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/234889
Digital & Interactive
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jeevan/oldportfolio/pages/digi_content.html
Processing: Maths to Art in One Simple Step
http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/
http://www.secrettechnology.com/works/everything.htm
Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Art
http://www.artcenter.edu/exhibit/digital/essay.html
Airport exhibiting digital art
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/234889
Digital & Interactive
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jeevan/oldportfolio/pages/digi_content.html
Processing: Maths to Art in One Simple Step
http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/03/31/processing-maths-to-art-in-one-simple-step/
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