Spring Dragon Trail, 2015, by Phillip Beesley Architects, http://philipbeesleyarchitect.com
Interact | Interaction | Interactive / Interactivity
Interactivity does not have a singular, defining meaning. The term has many implications and is broadly used across various disciplines such as biology, design, new media, communications, computer science and much more. Interactive systems and networks can be biological, virtual, perceptual, and in general are defined in many forms. In fact most things throughout our everyday life can be described as interactive. However there are some fundamental characteristics that make up the most basic description of the term. Interactive by definition means “the pattern of active”, rooting back to mid 19th century. The common thread that makes anything interactive is when messages (patterns) are “related to a number of previous messages [patterns] and to the relationship between them” (Rafaeli 1988). To achieve this there need to be sources that by communication will affect each other and simultaneously transform. ‘Interactivity’ dates back to 1995 and first showed up in Parsons research, which used the suffix ‘ity’ as the “quality or condition of interaction” (Parsons 2010). What this research signifies is that while a mobile app, an art installation, a video game, cellular structures are all interactive; it is the quality and condition of interaction, the interactivity, which distinguishes one form of interaction from another. The main question is the way which something triggers reaction, triggers behavior. Behaviors or actions are required on both sides of the equation and the quality and conditions of messages mediated, defines its interactivity. Therefore a very simple interface such as a website and a very complicated tele-communication system can both be interactive, but the quality, quantity and conditions of messages that go back and forth create extremely different sets of actions and reactions.
Waving Beans, by A. Kitaoka, http://gizmodo.com
"The idea that there is such a thing as fixed form is actually as much an assumption about perception as it is an assumption about art. It assumes that vision is not dynamic – that it is a passive, transparent registering of something that is just there, simply and inertly. If vision is stable, then to make art dynamic you have to add movement. But if vision is already dynamic, the question changes. It’s not an issue of movement or no movement. The movement is always there in any case. So you have to make distinctions between kinds of movement, kinds of experimental dynamics, and then ask what difference they make."
(Massumi 2008)
What Massumi points to is that the dynamics and shifts in perception are always there. The line between what is ‘real’ or physical versus ‘virtual’ or abstract behavior is of no importance. Neither is the question is this interactive? Assuming everything is interactive, it is the interactiv (ity) of a work that plays with the quality and conditions of present dynamics, may it be perceptual, physical or virtual in order to create a feedback.
Ondulation, 2002, by Thomas McIntosh, estuaire.info
Arjen Mulder and Joke Brouwer in the book Interact or Die. They define interaction as ‘formation of forms’. We and other organisms interact to survive. Our existence comes from a complex network of actions and reactions bouncing of each other.
 How many legs does the elephant have? playbuzz.com | “...perception becomes action, and the action of perceiving adds something to the work. The act of perceiving thereby becomes the act of making the work.” |
In the next two sections we are going over some examples of interactive/ responsive body of works revolving around just two branches of interactive works ranging from works involving or inspired by natural processes, paying attention to constant shifting natural environmental factors such as atmospheric physics, geology, astronomy and fluid motion, to a series of exemplary works blending the division between performer and spectator, where the works offer dynamic playful, flexible ways of perceiving the art object that is not static, prescriptive, and therefore is in constant flux.
Vibrant Matter | Dynamic Environments
Neither From Nor Towards, by Cornelia Parker, 1992, londonartreviews.com
From Cultivating Alternatives.com (link)
On Vibrant Matter, A Political Ecology of Things by Jane Bennet
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On Vibrant Matter, A Political Ecology of Things by Jane Bennet
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"My ‘own’ body is material, and yet this vital materiality is not fully or exclusively human. My flesh is populated and constituted by different swarms of foreigners… the bacteria in the human microbiome collectively possess at least 100 times as many genes as the mere 20,000 or so in the human genome… we are, rather, an array of bodies, many different kinds of them in a nested set of microbiomes." (Bennet, 112-13)
"If human culture is inextricably enmeshed with vibrant, nonhuman agencies, and if human intentionality can be agentic only if accompanied by a vast entourage of nonhumans, then it seems that the appropriate unit of analysis for democratic theory is neither the individual human nor an exclusively human collective but the (ontologically heterogeneous) ‘public’ coalescing around a problem” (Bennet, 108).
"If human culture is inextricably enmeshed with vibrant, nonhuman agencies, and if human intentionality can be agentic only if accompanied by a vast entourage of nonhumans, then it seems that the appropriate unit of analysis for democratic theory is neither the individual human nor an exclusively human collective but the (ontologically heterogeneous) ‘public’ coalescing around a problem” (Bennet, 108).
Evolution of the Earth
Visual Representation of The History of Life on Earth (link)
The geologic time spiral—A path to the past, Joseph Graham, 2008, wikipedia.org
This timeline of evolution of life represents the current scientific theory outlining the major events during the development of life on planet Earth. In biology, evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, from kingdoms to species, and individual organisms and molecules, such as DNA and proteins. The similarities between all present day organisms indicate the presence of a common ancestor from which all known species, living and extinct, have diverged through the process of evolution. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.
Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty, 1970 (link)
Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the central work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty. Built on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks and water, Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long (460 m), 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake. The water level of the lake varies with precipitation in the mountains surrounding the area, revealing the jetty in times of drought and submerging it during times of normal precipitation. Originally black basalt rock against ruddy water, Spiral Jetty is now largely white against pink due to salt encrustation. Since the initial construction of Spiral Jetty, those interested in its fate have dealt with questions of proposed changes in land use in the area surrounding the sculpture and of the proper amount of preservation, if any.
Ned Kahn
Wind Veil, 2000 (link)
Wind Veil, by Ned Kahn, 2000, nedkahn.com
The confluence of science and art has fascinated me throughout my career. For the last twenty years, I have developed a body of work inspired by atmospheric physics, geology, astronomy and fluid motion. I strive to create artworks that enable viewers to observe and interact with natural processes. I am less interested in creating an alternative reality than I am in capturing, through my art, the mysteriousness of the world around us.
My artworks frequently incorporate flowing water, fog, sand and light to create complex and continually changing systems. Many of these works can be seen as “observatories” in that they frame and enhance our perception of natural phenomena. I am intrigued with the way patterns can emerge when things flow. These patterns are not static objects, they are patterns of behavior – recurring themes in nature.
My artworks frequently incorporate flowing water, fog, sand and light to create complex and continually changing systems. Many of these works can be seen as “observatories” in that they frame and enhance our perception of natural phenomena. I am intrigued with the way patterns can emerge when things flow. These patterns are not static objects, they are patterns of behavior – recurring themes in nature.
Phillip Beesely Architects
Near-Living Responsive Architecture, Hylozoic Ground 2010 (link)
Hylozoic Ground, Phillip Beesley, 2010, http://philipbeesleyarchitect.com
The studio's design methods combine the durable crafts of heavy machining and building with advanced digital visualization, industrial design, digital prototyping, and mechatronics engineering. Sculptural work in the past three decades has focused on immersive textile environments, landscape installations and intricate geometric structures. The most recent generations of these works feature interactive lighting systems and kinetic mechanisms that use dense arrays of microprocessors and sensors. Chemical protocell metabolisms are in the early stages of development within many of these environments. These works contemplate the ability of an environment to be near-living, to stimulate intimate evocations of compassion with viewers through artificial intelligence and mechanical empathy. The conceptual roots of this work lie in 'hylozoism', the ancient belief that all matter has life.
Performer/ Spectator | Performative Environments
The Artist is Present, by Marina Abramovic, 2010, www.widewalls.ch
From Rhizome (link)
Performance, All Over the Map: Chris Salter's "Entangled"
By Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X]
Performance, All Over the Map: Chris Salter's "Entangled"
By Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X]
"...performance in a way that challenges our understanding of what performance is, but also demonstrates the profound connections between diverse sets of interdisciplinary practices that have not, up to now, been approached, considered or articulated as either interconnected or performative...
“everything has become performative” (p. xxi)... a shift in the zeitgeist that occurred at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, when the euphoria of the virtual was replaced with a reconsideration and re-foregrounding of the physical body and, with it, “embodiment, situatedness, presence, and materiality.”
As a result, claims Salter, “performance as practice, method, and worldview is becoming one of the major paradigms of the twenty-first century, not only in the arts but also the sciences.”... what performance suggests as a worldview is that 'reality' is not pregiven (and thus cannot be represented), but rather “the world is enacted or actively performed anew.” (p. xxvi) Thus, approaching the world as 'performative', is approaching the world as a 'reality' that “emerges over time” and is “continually transformed through our history of interactions with it.” (Salter, p. xxvii)
“everything has become performative” (p. xxi)... a shift in the zeitgeist that occurred at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, when the euphoria of the virtual was replaced with a reconsideration and re-foregrounding of the physical body and, with it, “embodiment, situatedness, presence, and materiality.”
As a result, claims Salter, “performance as practice, method, and worldview is becoming one of the major paradigms of the twenty-first century, not only in the arts but also the sciences.”... what performance suggests as a worldview is that 'reality' is not pregiven (and thus cannot be represented), but rather “the world is enacted or actively performed anew.” (p. xxvi) Thus, approaching the world as 'performative', is approaching the world as a 'reality' that “emerges over time” and is “continually transformed through our history of interactions with it.” (Salter, p. xxvii)
Teresa Margolles
In The Air, 2003 (link)
Teresa Margolles, In The Air, 2003, frieze.com
In the main hall of the museum, soap bubbles are churned into the air by simple, easily purchasable machines. An installation of ethereal beauty, En el aire (In the Air, 2003) turns on us with shocking vengeance when we learn that the water in these soap bubbles comes from the morgue and has been used to clean the dead bodies prior to autopsy.
Chris Salter
ilinx, 2015 (link)
Chris Salter, ilinx, 2015, chrissalter.com
Ilinx is a performative environment for the general public provoking an intense bodily experience that blurs the senses of sight, sound and touch. In the environment, a group of four visitors at a time wear specially designed garments. These wearables are outfitted with various sensing and actuating devices that enable visitors to interface with the performance space. During the event, a ritualistic progression which lasts approximately twenty minutes, the natural continuum between sound and vibration, vision and feeling becomes increasingly blurred, extending and stretching the body’ boundaries beyond the realm of everyday experience. The project is inspired by work in the area of what is called sensory substitution – the replacement of one sensory input (vision, hearing, touch, taste or smell) by another, while preserving some of the key functions of the original sense. The term ilinx (Greek for whirlpool) comes from the French sociologist Roger Caillois and describes play that creates a temporary but profound disruption of perception as is common in experiences of vertigo, dizziness, or disorienting changes of speed, direction or the body’s sense in space. “…An attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind. (Salter, ilinx)
Rafael Lozano Hemmer
Sandbox 2010 (link)
Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Sandbox, 2010, glowsantamonica.org
Sandbox is a large-scale interactive installation created originally for Glow Santa Monica. The piece consists of two small sandboxes where one can see tiny projections of people who are at the beach. As participants reach out to touch these small ghosts, a camera detects their hands and relays them live to two of the world's brightest projectors, which hang from a boom lift and which project the hands over 8,000 square feet of beach. In this way people share three scales: the tiny sandbox images, the real human scale and the monstrous scale of special effects. The project uses ominous infrared surveillance equipment not unlike what might be found at the US-Mexico border to track illegal immigrants, or at a shopping mall to track teenagers. These images are amplified by digital cinema projectors which create an animated topology over the beach, making tangible the power asymmetry inherent in technologies of amplification.
Topological Media Lab
Einstein's Dream, 2013 (link)
Topological Media Lab, Einstein's Dream, 2013, topologicalmedialab.net
Einstein’s Dream is an environment in which visitors encounter performers in responsive fields of video, light, and spatialized sound, in a set of tableaus. Each tableau is inspired by a vignette from Alan Lightman’s novel, Einstein’s Dreams, set in Berne Switzerland, in 1904, the year that Albert Einstein received the Nobel prize. Or rather, a set of parallel 1904’s, each of which is a different kind of time. In one, time slows to a halt as you approach a particular place; in another there is no future; in third, time sticks and slips; in a fourth age reverses and what is rotten becomes fresh as time passes.
In one version of this project, a large theatrical space (24m x 20m x 8m) will contain multiple tableaux, each accommodating 6-12 people in a pool of light and sound modulating in concert with activity. Visitors and performers can move from tableau to tableau. The performers’ actions, together with the textures and rhythms of lighting, sound and visitors’ expectations, create different kinds of time poetically related to the novel’s vignettes. As a performer walks from place to place she may drag a pool of conditioning light and sound. The pool mutates or merges into another pool with a different type of time.
In one version of this project, a large theatrical space (24m x 20m x 8m) will contain multiple tableaux, each accommodating 6-12 people in a pool of light and sound modulating in concert with activity. Visitors and performers can move from tableau to tableau. The performers’ actions, together with the textures and rhythms of lighting, sound and visitors’ expectations, create different kinds of time poetically related to the novel’s vignettes. As a performer walks from place to place she may drag a pool of conditioning light and sound. The pool mutates or merges into another pool with a different type of time.
