Roots of Digital Media - Summer 2010 - University of Bremen
Interactive Art. A Personal View
Qingteng Chang
Matr.:2460734, University of Bremen
qchang@informatik.uni-bremen.de
ABSTRACT1
The root of interactive art can be found as early as 1920s, when Marcel Duchamp published his piece named
Rotary Glass Plates.[1] It had been 90 years since the interactive art first appeared. Whether interactive art
was promoted in a right direction or not, after absorbing other concept of arts? This article will briefly
discuss how interactive art was came into being and how it was developed with information technology and
concentrate on the interactive art nowadays which is dependent on Computer Graphic and the Internet.
AUTHOR KEYWORDS
Interactive art, computer art, new media, digital media, Marcel Duchamp.
INTRODUCTION
Interactive art is a genre of art in which the viewers participate in some way by providing an input. Unlike
traditional art forms wherein the interaction of the spectator is merely a mental event, interactivity allows for
various types of navigation, assembly or contribution to an artwork, which goes far beyond purely
psychological activity.[2]
In the field of modern art, the interactive artistes are always regarded as an unusual group. They seldom paint
or play an musical instrument, instead, they bring up incredible ideas and cooperate with physicists,
computer scientists and then put them into practice.
It’s getting more and more acceptable nowadays. To a certain extent, computer games are example of
saliences. A piece of interactive art consists of content and technology, so audiences can understand it from
these two perspectives.
From the perspective of content, audiences have the chances to play around with that piece. They can touch,
jump, shout and etc, then the piece gives feedback immediately. In this interactive way, a close connection
will be built. However, as a traditional piece does, audiences can only enjoy that art in front of it. Of course
the imagination is infinite and can not be compelled. Compared with traditional pieces, interactive pieces do
hava their greatest charm.
From the perspective of technology, interactive art is referred particularly to human machine interaction.
This is the outside appearance part of a piece, but it plays an important role in interactive art. Because there
must be a media which connects the audiences and artistes and carries the idea.
The history of interactive art was promoted by the two factors above.
MARCEL DUCHAMP, 1920
As a matter of fact, the concept of interaction had been brought up by Marcel Duchamp in 1920s. Fig. 1
shows his Rotary Glass Plates Machine (in Motion), which was comprised of four Plexiglas wings with
black painted stripes placed along a rotating shaft. The artwork requires the viewer to turn on the machine
and stand at a distance of one meter.[3]
Submitted: 6 July 2010
Author: Qingteng Chang, an exchange student comes from Guangdong University of Technology and studies Digital Media in
University of Bremen, taking part in Roots of Digital Media which the lecturer is Prof. Dr. Frieder Nake.
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Roots of Digital Media - Summer 2010 - University of Bremen
Figure 1. Marcel Duchamp with Rotary Glass Plates Machine.
Photograph by Man Ray, 1920.
While the machine was engaged, the Plexiglas fins worked together to create a fleeting image of concentric
rotating circles. But the machine would stop if the viewer released the switch.
This is a brand-new concept at that time. It set up the idea that a viewer could participate in the process of a
piece of art. A passive audience has become an active role. Art can not be finished by only artist. Those were
what Duchamp did as an ancestor of modern art. As Frieder comments:
“Extending a remark by Marcel Duchamp on the role of the spectator in fully completing a work of art,
one—perhaps controversial—position in the history of art of the 20th century claims that the artist only
generates the material work, whereas society transforms the work into an accepted work of art. This
position leads to differentiation in the concept of creativity.”[4]
Besides, the Participation art, the Fluxus and Kinetic art also influence the development of interactive art
before 1960s.
TECHNOLOGY MOVEMENT, 1960
After the World War II, with the great development of technology, art was also injected with many technical
features.
Artists began trying new materials and methods to create a work of art. They preferred to use computer
programs instead of the brushes, to explore the new field of creating an art.
In 1969, Myron Krueger, who focused on the interaction between audiences and works, collaborated with
Dan Sandin, Jerry Erdman and Richard Venezky on a computer controlled light sound environment called
Glow Flow(Figure 2).
Fig 2. Glow Flow
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Roots of Digital Media - Summer 2010 - University of Bremen
Glow Flow was the first piece of interactive art in the age of information. The computer was used to create a
unique real-time relationship between the participants in the gallery and the artist in another building.[5] It
responded to the people in it by collecting the information from the sensors and changing the colors and
sounds.
ROOTS OF DIGITAL MEDIA, 1968
Computer art was developed greatly at that time.
There were two remarkable large exhibitions took place on in 1968. One was Cybernetic Serendipity. The
computer in the arts, that opened at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London; another was Tendencies 4
and 5, Computers and visual research, that started at the Galerije Grada Zagreba in Zagreb.
It is now evident that, where art meets science and technology, the computer and related discipline provide a
nexus.[6] So did interactive art.
In the language of computer, interactive art is one such case. It makes adequate use of the computer when the
work, in order to react to some activity of the audience, relies on symbolic action (as the execution of a
program).[7]
Digital Media, especially computer has become the core of interactive art since then. As a interactive artist,
they had a more powerful tool: Computer Graphic.
Another famous interactive installation established by Myron Krueger is called Videoplace(Figure 3).[8] He
finished it in 1974 with computer graphic technology.
Fig 3. Myron Krueger, Videoplace, 1974
The Videoplace used projectors, video cameras, special purpose hardware, and onscreen silhouettes of the
users to place the users within an interactive environment.
Users in separate rooms in the lab were able to interact with one another through this technology.
The movements of the users recorded on video were analyzed and transferred to the silhouette
representations of the users in the Artificial Reality environment.
Till now, many interactive installations have been built in this pattern. However, I’m not sure, whether it’s a
good symptom or not.
WORLD WIDE INTERACTION, 2000
The world is flat if there is Internet. The Internet, known as New Media, is striking against the traditional
medias.
Figure 4 shows the Vectorial Elevation. It was staged in Zocalo square, Mexico City, one of the largest public
squares in the world.
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Roots of Digital Media - Summer 2010 - University of Bremen
Fig 4. Rafael L.Hemmer, Vectorial Elevation, 1999–2000.
The movement of these searchlights was controlled via computer and it was possible for people to program
the pattern made by the searchlight beams by using a web browser graphic interface that could be accessed
anywhere in the world over the Internet.[9]
The most important idea behind this installation is, the artist provides the framework and allow the users to
design the content anywhere in the world and interact with that environment. They don’t have to go to the
exhibition any more.
What participants can do with a work of art have been promoted once more.
INTERACTIVE T-SHIRTS FROM JAPAN, 2010
Figure 5 shows the latest Interactive T-Shirts in Japan.[11]
Fig 5. Interactive T-Shirt
This is the interactive t-shirt inspired by a popular Japanese family game Reversi. From the perspective of
art, which stands for the media between human and human, the interactive t-shirt will become the first piece
that so close to the viewer.
SUSPICION
Before the Internet, the outside appearance of a piece of interactive art didn’t change much. As I
mentioned, the core of interactive art is based on Duchamp’s concept. Since 1960s, the technology part did
be highly promoted, but the content part didn’t.
It’s true that technology is important, but as a kind of art, technology is not the whole. After all, artists are
not scientists.
What is art?
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How to represent a work of art?
From my perspective, these are the questions should be answered by artists no matter when it is. Is the
summer of 1968 a starting or end point for computer art and interactive art?[11]
CONCLUSION
Interactive art can be sorted into three classes. They are Human-Human Interaction, Human-Machine
Interaction and Human-Nature Interaction. But art is to give serve to the audiences, not to be exhibited in
science center. Internet is doing the right things. An interactive art should concentrate on the part of content,
the role of media between human and human.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Prof. Dr. Frieder Nake, I do learn a lot from his lecture. He is a wisdom old man who dedicates his
life to teaching and digital media.
REFERENCES
1. Paul, C: Digital Art, page 11. Thames & Hudson Inc, 2003.
2. Wikipedia: Interactive Art.
3. David Reinfurt: Screen Saver.
4. Frieder Nake: Creativity in Algorithmic Art.
5. Wikipedia: Myron W. Krueger.
6. Hyde, Gordon; Benthall, Jonathan; Metzger, Gustav. Zagreb Manifesto. Bit international 7. Zagreb 1971
p.4
7. Frieder Nake: Computer Art: Creativity and Computability.
8. Wikipedia: Videoplace.
9. Graham Coulter-Smith: Deconstructing Installation Art, Fine Art and Media Art, 1986-2006.
10. http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2010/07/01/interactive-t-shirts-from-japan
11. Christoph Klütsch: The Summer 1968 in London and Zagreb: Starting or End Point for Computer art?.
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