Act/React - The only way is to Interact

The two pieces that I saw at the Milwaukee Museum of Art that interested me the most and seemed to need the most interaction to make a finished work or art were Touch Me by Janet Cardiff and Deep Walls by Scott Snibbe. I find it hard to say that the art is just by those two artists because neither of their works are really presented without some kind of outside interaction. Touch Me is unique to this exhibit as it is the only piece of art that has some kind of interface that you must interact with and I think that is why it intrigued me the most. Not only that, but without interacting with this interface, the piece is not really completed. To hear the sounds, which are a part of the art, the table must be touched. Therefore it is not complete until the interaction occurs and even then it takes a while to get to completion as there are many different phrases that have been recorded. Deep Walls on the other hand has no interface and requires at least one person to walk in front of it to complete it. While one is enough, the piece can store up to sixteen interactions at once and play them all back. This is why I say that it is hard to only name two people as the artists for these pieces. Once someone has moved in front of the projection, they have until sixteen more people pass in front of it to keep their contribution in the art and in that respect the artists are always changing.

When compared with Touch Me, the amount of interactions that can take place with different people at the same time is the strongest similarity. They can both be interacted with multiple people and respond differently based on what the person interacting with them does. Touch Me will say different phrases at different times and they are all randomized and the interaction with Deep Walls is based on how the viewer chooses to interact with it. The main difference that these two pieces have is how you interact with them. The table is the only physical interface in the exhibit and that gives it a different feeling when you approach it. Having something that you can actually touch gives a much deeper feeling about the piece, or at least it did when I saw it. These two pieces compared to other mediums in terms of experience is black and white. For other mediums, all the viewer gets to do is look and maybe listen, but what they seem and hear is predetermined. The interactivity brings a real sense of belonging to the art and can make just about anyone an artist. George Fifield emphasizes this point in his summary of this exhibit by saying, "Interactive artist and the viewer/user must work together to create the aesthetic experience, mediated by the art itself. It comes down to a simple verbal distinction: with non-interactive art we are, with interactive art we do." I believe that we could not do without both the artist and the viewer and that is the most important part of the medium of interactive art, that the viewer can now help create the art.