Kristin Seymour
Analysis: Interactive Art
Interactive art works can be simply defined as art pieces that require viewer input in order to reach their artistic goals/potential. Some of these interactive art pieces revolve around the physicality of the objects involved in the piece, some revolve around performers or audiences while others directly invite viewers to be in collaboration with artists. When classifying interactive artworks I place them in three categories: awareness of self, performance, and installations. Many interactive artworks can cross multiple categories but do focus on one category.
The first category is awareness of self. This category can be classified as containing works that turn viewers into participants and makes them aware of their thoughts, actions and bodies. These are the works that need participants in order to reach their potentials. The works are not complete in the artist’s eyes unless viewers choose to act on their intuitions and be involved in the work. At this point the participants become in collaboration with the artist. This category includes works by Robert Morris and Jesus Rafael Soto. Morris’s Bodyspacemotionthings as well as his Mazes raise awareness of how our bodies move and react to spaces. He creates sculptures that force participants into awkward positions and through new situations. Some of his works include ramps rising to lowered ceilings that participants must duck under. Art works like these invoke physical and emotional reactions in the participants. Physically the person has to change the shape of their bodies and react to their perceptions of space. Emotionally the participants must determine if they wish to move further into the sculpture and if they are enjoying or hating the experience. Some of his works like the mazes require a higher order of thinking in order to navigate through the work. Works such as Morris’s call on viewers to do more than just passively look at the work, they must interact with the piece. Jesus Rafael Soto’s Penetrable Blue raises body awareness and perception. The viewer becomes aware of how they move through the blue chords because with every movement the tubes will move as well and hit against your body. Rather than air moving past your body without your nerves noticing, the blue chords hit your skin and send signals to your brain alerting you of your body position and movement. This creates a whole new level of interactivity. Also, interactive works like Soto’s raise a person’s awareness of their perception and visibility. When walking though the piece you become engulfed in a field of blue chords and people start to come out of the sea of blue far closer than your first perception tells you. Works such as Soto’s and Morris’s turn viewers into participants and aim to make them aware of their own bodies and movements through space.
The next category of Interactive art is Performance. Performances can be for audiences or with participants. Artists like Natalie Jeremijenko create events such as her Cross(X) Species Dinners as interactive performance pieces. During these dinners Jeremijenko speaks about the environment and engages the participants. Then the meals are served in a way that includes all persons in the performance. Each dinner is a one-time deal performance. These dinners are not recorded or recreated; they are about the time, the people and the moments that happen at the dinner. Interactive artworks like this one rely totally on the audience to make the work complete. Interactive artists like Sol Lewitt create performances through rules. The rules provide a template for a performance piece. In the end the result is more about the final product, but without the performance of the rules the product would not exist. Performance art is interactive art in a sense that it requires movement and participation to succeed.
What I consider to be the final category of art is Installation art. This type of art is about space and place as well as how viewers move through or act upon the pieces of the installation. Installations can be interactive in context of simple body movement through the space or they could only require a person to remain still as the space changes. Carsten Holler creates stories high slides that move through public buildings. He also creates benches, which viewers can lie down on, and watch the aquarium above their heads. These two types of installations call on the viewers to interact with the stationary pieces of work. The aquarium piece is about the space itself. The topic is the fish and water within the aquarium and how the viewer sees the aquarium at an odd angle. Golan Levin creates site-specific installation works such as QR_Hobo_Codes for Digital Nomads. The installations each consist of a QR code and those codes lead to warning signs or comments about the place where you found the QR code. I see this piece as multiple installations because they call on viewers to interact and are stationary. You are not forced to interact with them as in other interactive works. They are forms of permanent installations within the city as a warning system.
Interactive artworks can fall into a number of categories, but they are classified at interactive works due to their need to have participants rather than passive audiences, as well as requiring awareness of the participant.
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