Art 308 Sculpture Studio Portfolio

Molly Burtenshaw

Project 2- Kinetics and Interactivity

Many interactive artworks involve showing an audience something that they in tern are supposed to respond to verbally, emotionally, or by writing something down. They invite any person to participate in the process of the artwork. I chose instead to have participants be involved in a tactile nature. Following works such as Cristo and Jeanne Claude's Wrapped Walk Ways, I wanted to create a surface that people interact with on a daily basis without thinking, and force them to be aware of their movement through the space. It is also related to the interactivity of Vito Acconci's architectural works, because they are spaces that are impossible to avoid in everyday experience.

This idea of being aware of every action is related to ideals of Zen Buddhism I have recently been exposed to. By focusing on every individual action, including taking a step, people can be more mindful about their lives and live in the present moment. Having unexpected surfaces that cannot be viewed makes each participant think about how their hands and feet are moving, instead of seeing a visual stimulus and then being distracted by other thoughts. They must focus on moving their hands and feet because they cannot anticipate the next moment and thus dismiss it.

One issue I had with this project that I would like to resolve to take it further is getting people to actually interact with the walkway. Two solutions to this might be building it out of more natural materials and in a more public setting so that people would be more inclined to touch it rather than avoid it for fear of disturbing "art". I would have constructed it in a more public and accessible space, but was not aware of the restrictions involved in different public walkways on campus – this seems to be a major issue with large works of interactive art in general. Also, to force people to use the walkway, any other means of movement must be eliminated, and this also deals with problems with obstructing public spaces and safety issues. If done again, I would involved more officials in the process of getting it approved so that it could be set up in a more effective location, as well as adding another level of interactivity to the work.