Interactivity in New Media

Experts point out that there is a radical approach on audience awareness as they choose to increase or decrease their attentiveness at installations. Audiences by every means have the right to revitalize the way they viewed arts, in which they reject tradition in order to transform into contemporary society. This could be easily summed up as post-modernist ideals from audiences. In this essay, I will briefly touch on interactivity in new media, the impact it has on audience and inclusion of new technology in order to draw larger audience numbers.

The Paleolithic man began carving small stones that would be discovered 24,000 years later known as Venus figurine. Presumably it shared the same qualities of the modern men on how he carries pictures of his family on his mobile as a reminder that he must foremost hunt for commodity. Now as we move on to a much ingenious endeavour by the primitive man, the first cave paintings. The idea behind cave paintings were actually designed as animation potentially with the flicker of the fire, in the first cave paintings of the bison there seems to be distinctive oddities in the bisons depiction particularly of a six legged bison. Actually they were designed to be put into motion with the flicker of fire and the idea of storytelling around fire is forever imprinted in our lives.

Now we have moved on to live in an instantaneous and ever visually literate world, if I could attest casually that nobody is interested in looking at your pictures because they are preoccupied with posting theirs. Institutions are engaged in philosophical discussions about the status of the image in contemporary society & the affects to artistic practices in the image making fraternity. This leads to questions such as is there a need for innovation in the rules of visual structure. The answer lies with the new media designer who effortlessly moves between dimensions.

Active versus passive viewership, a good depiction of the later is cinema. Cinema confines the viewer in a designated place on a permanent venue and to add insult seating’s are always predetermined for the viewer regardless even if it is the 1,000,000 millionth screening you cant simply be seated behind the screen or roam around freely to gaze. The restrictions continue with timetables that has to be adhered by audiences, rules on entry and exit to the screening. Finally prohibition on using personal electronic devices during screenings. One may wonder if they have accidentally entered a restricted civil zone. Every other avenue is embracing the inevitable relationship between man and his smart phone, even institutions as old as Greece itself embrace QR codes so that visitors get all that is needed to make their stay a pleasant one at the museum.

In order to entice new audiences to an art exhibition it is recommended to expect a level of participation from them, especially in exploring eccentric experiences. Just as mentioned previously in the cinema environment passive observation has a tendency to arrest the viewer. Spectators to interactive visual installations are usually engaged in physical activities, for instance something simple as moving in, around and through the installation at their own leisure. Audiences have acquired the rights to spend more or less time being attentive to a piece at their discretion but participatory art has the ability to make them stay a little longer at exhibitions. For instance, art installations that have a narrative requiring audiences to allow their senses of touch, hearing or sight as an experience to seek alternate dimensions within the installation.

Curators and Visual artist should explore new spaces that could possibly garner larger audience turnouts, particularly millennials by large seem to make lifestyle choices through data superhighways. Exhibitions should consider existing on two levels. One is a general exhibition for walk in audiences while the other is on an interactive online platform There is a potential for developers such as Google to collaborate with creative teams or at least make an open source application available for artists. As an extension to the exhibition the visual artist and his creative team could perhaps take advantage of applications such as Google Earth & Youtube so that there will be a live streaming, extended information in the form of infographics and most importantly new interactivity in the form of augmented virtual reality with peripherals, namely Oculus or other virtual reality wearables. The interactivity element is the most exciting part of the offering from the visual artist to the audience. The data collected from this interactivity could be used as methodology for further research or passed on to the curator of the scientific/computer science component if its a two prong event like high technology art.

High technology artist such as Dmitry Kawarga often have a curator for the scientific component, a programmer and technical engineer. The team collects bio-feedbacks

including reading of brainwaves, calculate changes in the blood flow lumen using devices. A synthesis of the visual and tactile of science and art.

Is there a need to rely heavily on new interfaces or devices in visual installations or rather focus on delivering a simpler narrative? usually elements like sound and multiple visuals are used to enhanced audiences experiences but most importantly these interfaces act as an agent to reflect the course of the narrative on a new point of view or add value to the ongoing installations story. NODA developers of advanced gesture control’s log line is ‘we communicate human intent’. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into a visual installations, so that a relationship is established between audience and artist. Much of it is built on trust based on the rhetoric from the artist.

I would like to emphasize for more scholarly work on new technology, because there is a need for artists to find reliable methods in the aesthetic approach with new apparatuses. For instance in the optics side of visual image-making technique, lately industry players have filed patents on image pickup in contact lenses. A variation of smart contact lenses that just records images to high end biomedical data collection. In the hands of an artist it could potentially open new realms in audience experience or new imagery in contrast to the concave glass.

In conclusion, I believe interactivity in art is gainful in many ways but there is a need to be more concerned about the narrative aspect as well. Technology in interactive arts should be enhancements that are meant to serve the narrative and not the other way around, in my humble opinion.