Marissa’s Interactive Art Proposal

1) Introduction
-What interactive artwork(s)/genre(s) did you pick?
Well I want to try not going into the visual art section, something more like music or dance, but from the lecture, the prof said that dancing is not interactive, so im not so sure how I would be able to find a protrayl of dance and an interactive art. But after some research I came to find that the interactive artwork genre that I picked is focused on digital art, also known as by Benjamin, digital reproduction.
-What is the art form?
I would think it falls under the category of visual art.

-Why did you pick this interactive art piece (brief)
I picked this interactive art piece because it interested me right when I saw it. Plus although there was presentations last week in class, I didn’t see anyone present the interactive art that I found. I think it is a bit different then others just because it is an interactive art that is changed human and art interactivity not based through the computer.

-Why do you feel it is important to research this for your group project? Put another way, why did this/these artwork(s) interest you?
I feel that this is important to reasearch as a group project because there are many people that are doing this type of art that is not necessarily being recognized, and this gives them a chance to be recognized, and even appreciated for adding their art to the interactive art world to share with us.

2) Brief examples of your artworks and examples of your references.-Show us the art pieces and discuss them.
The mirrors are the art work pieces that I like the most, it seems to be made out of anything, the four that I saw was of wooden blocks, garbage, shiny silver balls and circular objects that spin an change colour. All these different materials facilatate the same thing, showing us an image of ourselves. We may say that we can do this in our mirrors at home every morning, but these arts are not just a reflection of ourselves, and it is not utilitarian because it doesn’t act as a frame for us to fisk our hair or make-up.
http://www.smoothware.com/danny/

Another site gives us the chance to interact with art that is already created, altering it in ways that without digital functions would not be possible.
It is called the Khronos Project.
http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/alvaro/Khronos/#Introduction

-How are they interactive?
It is interactive by the fact that it changes its state when human interaction with it is created. Once someone stands infront of it, it transforms to output that image for the viewer to see.
-What aspect of interactivity do you think best suites analyzing these interactive artworks/genres? E.g., as creator-creation-viewer, as creator-creation-creator, as process using the Internet or technology as an interactive "canvass" in the process of creation?
I would say it is a creation viewer interaction, I don’t think that it has anything or much to do with the creator, also in includes the internet and technology as an interactive “canvass”.

-How are they art?
Because if you ask the question if it isnt art what is it? There is nothing else that comes to mind as to what it is, so therefore it must be art. Also the artist calls it art, so that shows that he or she created to be art, meaning the intention of the artist was to create art. Lastly, we still can not define the art, yet when we see art, we know it is art, and I immediately interpreted what I found as art.

-How does this interactive art implicate the viewer? The creator? Art in general?
The interactive art that I found implicates the viewer by being able to change the art piece when they interact with it. The viewer wants to see how they effect thea art piece. It implicates art in general by the way it is viewed, it is view in the traditional way art is viewed, in an art gallery, but the scope of viewing is not limited to just the art gallery because it can be seen over the internet. The interactive art also implicates the creator because they have an active role in their art piece, the spent much time deciding what they want to create, how they want to create it, and why they want to create each piece. In fact, each piece has their own separate meanings, some maybe told to the public while others maybe kept to the knowledge of the artist alone.

Might this interactive art/genre alter/add to the various definitions of art that we've talked about thus far?
I think this venture into interactive art, which is more prominently seen in this digital age, has brought a new sector to the definition of art. I also think that these arts are somewhat like the Cyborg virtual realities that scientist’s try to enhance. This discussion of Virtual Reality was discussed in a reading called “Machines are Restless Tonight”, which I also wrote about in my blog called Cyborg Envy.

3) Conclusion: In light of what you've presented...
-What would you propose to focus on in your group research?
I think what I want to venture into is video art, and how it is affected by human interactivity, also the “want or need” that people feel to interact with this type of art leading to level of Cyborg envy.

-What questions need to be further researched by your group that you'd like to further explore based on your own initial research?
-The questions that need to be further researched by a group would be:
-How does these technologies and interactive art actually work?
-What is the intrensic details to its capablilities?
-Why did the artist create it, and what emotion(s) does the artist want us to have from it.
-I’m sure there are scholarly research done on this art genre or piece, so what are they, and why are they so important to the person that wrote the article etc.

-How would you propose that your group go about doing the research?
I would say that the group would go about doing research by connections. What I mean by connections is that, from the information and the research that I already did, we work with those sites, look at what they have to offer, what other sites they maybe referring to, what countries they are based in, also look at the many different art pieces that that one artist created which is quite a few.

-How might you present it using a website?
I have a background in webdesigning, and I would like to use that to help create a well designed, well informative website that encompasses not only my ideas, but the ideas of the rest of the people that may want to make a group.

Reiterations
The first interactive art that I found was a mirroring effect that looks like it digitizes what it sees. It uses a digital camera and wooden blocks to create a visual of what is in its view. So as the person stands in front of the oversized wooden mirror, it will change to look like the person in front of it. Therefore it is very much interactive, because it changes depending on the movement of a human being. By the definition given in a previous lecture, we are told that interactivity involves listening, thinking and speaking, and in a more computer based form, it is input, processing and output. The input of this art piece is the person standing in front of the technologically enhanced mirror, the processing is done by the digital camera which transfers the image to the wooden blocks or other materials, creating an art that would not be possible without human interactivity. The artist that created this interactive are also created quit a few more that are great examples of interactive art. One other interactive art that I liked from this website is the painting easel that when painted on shows images of either yourself, surroundings or a live connection to CNN. http://www.smoothware.com/danny/