Cat and Mouse

The article titled "Responsive Environments" written by and about the digital artist, Myron W. Krueger, examines the evolution, trajectory, and applications of real-time interactive digital environments. I found the work, and more so the aspirations and philosophies of Krueger to be extremely interesting, despite any logical fallacies and conceptual holes in the work.  Krueger is desperately seeking a dialogue and philosophical aesthetic for interactive media. He reiterates that the work is neither about the visual or audial characteristics and displays of the work, but rather the interactivity that the work elicits between "artist" and participant. On page 379, he even outlines that the number of participants should be limited so as to control the amount of interaction that may take place between participants, delineating further that the interaction should take place between artist and participant. 

Why shouldn't the interaction take place between participants as well? The interactive "relational aesthetic" artist Tirvanija, constructs a type of an environment in a gallery to elicit responses in the participants. He cooks food which fills the normally sterile 

environment  with rich inviting scents and 

 provides food to the participants to eat and enjoy. Socialization is elevated as people become more relaxed and distracted by the sensuality of the experience. Kreuger is careful not to put too much control in the hands of the partic

ipant, which I feel is limiting to not only his research but the true character traits of human behavior - people are social creatures who seek companionship and camaraderie. Human beings are also naturally resistant to an overbearing sense of control - which is perceived as dangerous and limiting. 

Learn more about the work of Tiravanija here: http://www.artnet.com/artist/16665/rirkrit-tiravanija.html

Control is obviously necessary to some degree however. Given the constraints of the technology, certain parameters have to be in place for the project  to succeed. I suppose I find the idea of "cat and mouse" to be quite interesting and applicable to my work, though in the abstract sense. In Krueger's "Maze" participants are lured into navigating the projected maze to only discover that their journey was somewhat in vain. The maze transforms to avoid any "end Point" or success of completion on behalf of the participant. There are also consequences - if the individual steps out of "bounds", the maze reacts antagonistically to produce a type of penalty. The participant ultimately realizes that the point of the maze is simply to get the individual to interact with it - and not to create a sort of challenge that can be overcome. I like the idea of "luring" the individual to participate though I find the maze to be overly deceptive which may only increase one's resistance to technology as the feeling of being "tricked" be a machine permeates the human psyche.  However, the idea of seduction is applicable to my work. 

The idea of "luring" made me think back to the first exhibition of Realisms at the Hirshhorn Museum. Crowds of people clung to each other as they navigated the dark corridors of the exhibition, waiting eagerly to find what was just around the corner. I remember remarking that people were treating the exhibition like a "funhouse," giggling and bumping into each other as they stared with mouths agape at the moving images projected onto walls in black, chilly rooms. While reading the article, I thought about how I could display my work so that individuals were enticed to come and see what was producing a certain noise, or where an inviting glow illuminated from. In theory it seems quite difficult to get people to venture into a dark room and watch something of which the outcome is unknown and the subject matter is undisclosed.  How long can one entrap an audience? So often people abandon multi-media pieces, especially films, before ever seeing the end of the piece. I wonder how I can lay claim to an audience for the entire duration of my film, which is fairly short in length. I suppose I have started to do this by creating an aesthetically pleasing visual piece. I wanted the film to seem as though it were from a different time period - which I find increases one's curiosity about the origin of the work. People are so curious about the past, about the way things were rather than what they will become. I hope to exploit these notions further as I take into account the importance of audience and the idea of directing audience as my project evolves.