Post 03: Reading and Response #2

In his article Trouble at the Interface, or the Identity Crisis of Interactive Art, author Erkki Huhtamo describes what he feels is the growing distinction between different forms of interactive art. He states that in the past, the phrase “interactive art” has been assosicated exclusively with user-driven computer-based works, while its modern definition has been broadened to include works fitting neither of these requirements. He specifically cites the 2004 Ars Electronica award winners as a sign of this division in the field.

In order to accomidate this growing division, Huhtamo proposes a more diverse terminology when dealing with the different kinds of “interactive” works. Works centered around a human-machine interface would thus be classified as “cybernetic art”. Likewise, works driven organically or spontaneously but without audience interaction (such as his example of a pair of fighter fish who can “pilot” their fishbowls by blocking light beams) would be classified as “meta-interactive”. Huhtamo also notes that what is classified as “interactive art” emerged well before the advent of the internet, and thus works involving an online aspect should be considered “net visions”.

Looking at the Ars Electronica winners from 2005 and onward, however, has lead me to disagree with Huhtamo’s idea of splitting interactive art into categories. While not all of them involve direct audience participation, (Such as Ieva Auzina and Esther Polak’s MILKproject, which uses GPS systems to create a real-time overview of the European milk industry) all are driven by human actions in some way. Paul DeMarinis’ The Messanger, for example, uses a computer to receive e-mails from around the world, which are then sent by telegraph to the work’s actual installment where they are spelled out through a series of “physical” devices, such as the resonance of a water-filled bowl, or a troupe of dancing skeletons. I feel that in these cases, human input, either consciously as an audience or subtly as with the MILKproject, has been the key element that drives the work, whether or not direct interaction with a computer is involved.