1.1: electronic art history, meaning of interactivity

A. Electronic art history

During our first full class, we began by discussing some historical uses (in the last century) of technology in art that were particularly rich in concept.

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T), a large-scale, organized collaboration between artists and engineers during the 60s and 70s, led to some of the most innovative and exciting tech+art projects to date.  Through E.A.T, artists worked with large companies such as Bell labs to be given access to incredible funding and resources, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with engineers. Instead of engineering knowledge serving the creation of art or vice versa, the artists and engineers worked through all aspects of their processes together to generate projects informed by a shared knowledge.

Main themes explored in E.A.T were: wireless connectivity, mapping the human body, interactivity, and creating immersive environments.

A few exemplary artists/works we discussed:

    Deborah Hay (choreography/mechatronics)  
    John Cage (electronics and music)
    Fujiko Nakaya (cloud creation)
    Jean Tinguely (destruction machine)  

The range of these outcomes illustrates that the goal of working with tech and art together can sometimes be a critique of new technologies and our relationship of it, or to simply use invented tools to create magical, beautiful experiences.

B. Meaning of Interactivity

We also discussed potential meanings of interactivity, because the goal for the artworks we'll produce this semester is for them to richly involve participants with interactive elements.

There is a difference between interactivity and reactivity; experiences/projects/objects that are conversation-like, unexpected, and involving are our desired kind of interactivity. Reactivity is a simple cause and effect relationship between a person and a device, which we want to avoid in our pursuit of more thought-provoking projects. 

For project generation, it's useful to think of some specific types of inputs and outputs we might use.

Inputs might be:

    sensing the body (voice, gestures, breathing)

    computer-based (mouse click, button press, stylus)

    computer vision

    light and color (can be used in unexpected ways, like when something has been picked up)

    distance, pressure, etc.

    anything that happens in the world can be seen as an input!    

Outputs might be:

    screen/projection/DMX lights

    water fountain etc.

    anything that can be turned on or off

    sound

    motors (an important and versatile one)