ABSTRACT
The Significance of the Introduction of Electronic
Interaction to the History of the Art Object and the Viewer.
Mary Anne Farah
1995
Since the late 1960s, a new artistic
phenomenon--"electronic interactivity" as it is referred to by
practitioners--has emerged which is worthy of art historical assessment. As part of such
an endeavour, this text examines how electronic interactivity has altered the traditional
relationship between art objects and art viewers. The first chapter covers some of the
twentieth century art movements that contributed to the emergence of different forms of
viewer participation with artworks. The second chapter presents a compilation of the
ideologies that have motivated many interactive artists to create work that is dependent
on viewer participation. In addition, it provides a dialogue about how viewers have
responded to interactive artworks and some associated problems. The third chapter expands
upon the definition of "interactivity" by combining artists' and writers'
definitions with the author's. This understanding of interactivity provides a spring board
to present two main methods for electronic interaction in art in the final
chapter--'pathway/explorer" and "cocreator". Both of these terms are used
to separate different modalities of information exchange between artworks and art viewers.
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