Interactive Art

genre 1950s-present Europe United States

Interactive art is work that cannot complete itself: it needs the spectator to act. Some installations are simply walked through, over or around; others make the viewer's movement, touch, voice or choices part of the artwork's behaviour. The impulse predates the computer - cybernetic sculptures of the 1950s and 1960s already responded to their surroundings - but digital sensing made it a major form from the 1970s onward, from Myron Krueger's responsive video environments to Jeffrey Shaw's navigable projected cities and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's city-scale participatory light works. What unites the genre is feedback: the piece senses, answers, and changes, so no two encounters are alike and the audience becomes co-author rather than viewer.

Exhibition view showing Honys Torres interacting with visitors during the presentation In the POP ART Context at FRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery (
Exhibition view showing Honys Torres interacting with visitors during the presentation In the POP ART Context at FRESA y CHOCOLATE Gallery (CC BY 4.0 (credit: HonysTorresArt) · source

Defining characteristics

  • The work changes state in response to the viewer's movement, touch, voice or choices
  • Sensors and feedback loops replace the fixed, finished art object
  • Audience behaviour becomes part of the composition - the spectator is a co-author
  • Time-based and ever-changing: no two encounters produce the same experience
  • Room-scale environments and walk-through spaces rather than discrete objects
  • Common materials: projection, screens, light, sound, robotics and live data

Key figures

  • Nicolas Schöffer (1912-1992) — French cybernetic sculptor whose responsive kinetic works were forerunners of interactive art
  • Roy Ascott (b. 1928) — British pioneer of participatory and telematic art who made audience input part of the work
  • Myron Krueger (b. 1942) — Computer scientist-artist whose Videoplace pioneered real-time interactive digital environments
  • Jeffrey Shaw (b. 1944) — Artist whose viewer-navigated installations (The Legible City) made the audience the driver of the work
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967) — Artist of large-scale participatory public works that respond to crowds and remote input

Example works

  • Videoplace — Myron Krueger (c. 1974)
  • The Legible City — Jeffrey Shaw (1989)
  • Vectorial Elevation — Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (1999)

Sources

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