“Making Interactive Art: Set the Stage, Then Shut Up and Listen”
In the reading, “Making Interactive Art: Set the Stage, Then Shut Up and Listen”, the author discusses the importance of allowing users to fully take charge of interactive artworks. The main points brought up were the following:
- Interactive artwork doesn’t need to have a clear statement. (Leave room for interpretation)
- Interactive artwork is meant to open a conversation not DIRECT the conversation.
- The audience should ideally complete the artwork by offering their emotional reactions, physical actions, and thoughts to the piece.
I think the PERFECT analogy that the author used was when they compared a director telling an actor on set how to feel or what to do when acting, to artists adding too much of their input into their interactive pieces.
I thought that that analogy wonderfully tied together what the author was trying to explain throughout the piece. I believe that artists have such a critical role in creating spaces that allow for important discussion and have the great responsibility of making sure these discussions are OPEN without being manipulated.
“Physical Computing’s Greatest Hits (and misses)”
For the reading, “Physical Computing’s Greatest Hits (and misses)”, the author goes over a wide range of different interactive artworks. For me this reading almost acted as a means for me to brainstorm some possibilities for projects in the future and gave me a sense of some of the things that are possible with physical computing.
My favorite example was the piece called “Fields of Grass”. I really liked the idea of the user being able to use semi physical touch to activate music or light using sensors. I always enjoyed these types of interactive artworks when seeing them in person!