Art games: Interactivity and the embodied gaze

Abstract

One of the most salient differences between fine art and new media art lies in the possibility for interactivity. Interactivity is not simply an inherent quality of new media, it also relates to a crucial ethico-aesthetic premise informing deconstructive art from Dada and Surrealism through radical art of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present. The ethico-aesthetic premise in question concerns breaking down the barrier between the viewer and the work of art and bringing art into life. More specifically the goal is to bring creativity into everyday life as an antidote to alienation and reification. Whereas new media art finds it relatively easy to devise art games that encourage creative involvement on the part of the viewer, fine art is severely hindered in its attempts in this direction by the traditional focus on the artist-genius and the transformation of the artistic product (whatever its material) into a precious object. It will be shown that creative games exist in fine art but they are for the most part designed by the artist for the artist. This is even the case with the most radical fine artists celebrated at the turn of the millennium such as Rirkrit Tiravanija who Nicolas Bourriaud put forward as a prime instance of so-called relational aesthetics.

Meaningful Engagement: Computer-Based Interactive Media Art in Public Space

“…'Traditionally the interaction of the viewer with the work of art has been via looking and respectfully appreciating' [15] under this, the audience is often positioned as inferior to the work and always physically passive [15]. Whereas, the exclusive intellectual and physical hegemony of the artist does not exist in computer-based interactive media art.…”

“…Traditionally aesthetics in general encourage viewers to think about author's intention [16], which usually through visual admiration and contemplation, the action of which is deemed as 'Reading' [15]. To truly comprehend traditional arts requires a high degree of fluency in the artistic techniques and history concerning the work.…”

“…Over time the audience might react to the 'emancipatory effect' [15], which allows the development of thought, imagination or might even produce interpretation. Thus to raise a challenge might be one of the crucial components to extend 'use-time'.…”

The workshop of filthy creation: or do not be alarmed, this is only a test

“…89 Certainly, Geers, at least according to the writer Ruth Kirkham, 'seems to take this label of 'terrorist' as a compliment. 90 Indeed he makes further use of the term in his essay, 'I, TerroRealist', 91 wherein the terrorist is portrayed as an 'outsider, the other to whom our codes do not apply and who, in consequence, is now our enemy.' Here Geers argues that: 'we classify people as terrorists only because they do not play by our rules, respect our currency, worship our gods and they certainly do not respect our crusades and declarations of war.'…”

Art Video Games

“…According to Hershman, HCI and the new technologies have given a turn to contemporary art, taking observers out of their passive and contemplative places to put them in the center of the art work; placing, at the same time, art into daily life. Coulter-Smith and Coulter-Smith (2006, p. 176) add in this respect that, contrary to traditional art where there is a genius producer, the game entails a different referent, where the artist is not the maker of an art piece, but rather the creator of a space that will interact with a viewer.…”