Sculpture Studio Spring 2012

Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity
ANALYSIS

In some sense, all works of art incorporate the concept of interactivity, although the levels, or amount of focus on this concept, vary widely. In a Renaissance oil painting by Jan Van Eyck, the level of interactivity might extend to the most basic relationship of artist and viewer, demonstrated by a visitor walking up to a painting, hung on the wall of a gallery, standing at a respectable distance from the piece (about five to ten feet), observing the painting, analyzing it from his or her separated position, and then walking on to the next piece.  This scenario would change however, if for example, the painting was not hung on the wall, but was instead tilted against a wall, causing visitors to kneel, squat, or bend to achieve an eye-level position.  The viewer is taken slightly out of his or her physical comfort zone through non-traditional gallery etiquette, such as kneeling or adjusting body angles to experience art.

Interactivity in art can be used as a means of displaying and presenting, and also as a means of experiencing and creating.  A piece that is conceptually complete when installed, has a more passive audience interaction status compared to a piece that, though physically sound and complete during installation, requires more form the viewer to complete the concept behind the construction.  Artists who draw on the concept of interactivity in their work are conscious of the fact that the structure or art presented to the viewer is not a complete and finished product—the visitor, the individual, the community, or even the space, are integral in the creation of the final artwork.  This artwork is contingent on how someone experiences it, the physical structures becomes mechanisms, pathways, to the art itself.  One of the beautiful aspects of every genre of art is that everyone experiences the same piece in different ways; a viewer becomes his or her own author of a work through his or her personal interaction with it.  In the genre of interactive art, this notion is fully explored.  The creation of art is unique from person A to person B, even from space A to space B.; it is the personal experience that produces art.  Artists like Mowry Baden, Mel Chin, Jim Sanborn, Vito Acconci, Felix Gonzales-Torres, and many more, create art that is contingent on the participation of others.  Mowry Baden pieces mostly consist of material, forms, contraptions, that are means to an end—the physical pieces themselves are abstract, but they are not the works of art Baden intends the viewer to experience.  Instead, the viewer must become the participant, usually physically engaging in some way.  What the individual experiences physically, psychologically, emotionally, from his or her interaction with what Baden has provided, is his intended artwork.  On the other hand, Vito Acconci’s interactive artwork relies much less on a viewer’s physical interaction with material provided in a gallery, and more on the psychological engagement of the viewer.  Acconci pushes the artist-viewer relationship to a new level where concepts such as trust, vulnerability, and perspective are questioned.
           
When the viewer becomes the artist, the definition of art must be restructured. Traditionally it is the skilled, mastered artist technicians, craftspeople—the creative minds at work, who create art.  This is how we think of the artists—that art is something the average person could not make; would not think to make.  But when an artist creates and puts forth a finished product, allowing and asking the viewer to create the finalized artwork, our defining lines of the relationship between artist and viewer, and therefore our definition of art itself, are muddled.  Is the object the art? Is the experience the art? Is it art if anyone and everyone can make it?  When interaction is a main tenant to artwork, the concept of a skilled, trained artisan as the authority figure in what is correct or appropriate in the art world is lost.  The field becomes more equally distribute and more interdependent.

There are pros and cons to art that is dependent on the interactivity of others. Some concerns might be that the artist cannot control what a viewer does.  The artist cannot force a viewer to participate in a piece, and at the same time, the artist cannot keep someone from vandalizing or acting in a destructive manner in relation to the piece—this act could even be taken as a symbol of the viewer accepting the piece by attempting to make personal claim to it themself.  This concern is also what makes interactive art so powerful.  The point is to have people participate, therefore, how one chooses to participate is all part of the process.