Interactive art was once thought of as pieces of art that had to be interacted with by a real user
in real time. As time went on and technology advanced, the formal definition was changed, mainly due
to the introduction of the Listening Post. This perticular piece of didn't require a user present but
still used what actual people said across all internet chatrooms whenever they used the phrase "i am"
It would then display all the phrases it gathered on a giant wall of screens. Although the definition
of interactive art has evolved, some current forms of art have reverted back to the formal definition.
One console that requires a real time user to play games, using the player's body as the controller
is the Xbox Kinect. It is best represented when a player wants to play a games such as bowling, vollyball,
etc.
Lev Marovich "Database as a Symbolic Form"
In "The Database Logic" section of Lev's piece he claims that the database form really fluorished is on
the internet. All websites essentially are collections of data, from the huge amounts of code it takes
to create the website to the information it presents once it is complete. Such as a search engine that
provides you with a collection of links to other webbsites or just someone's personal blog with their posts
organized by date or other catagories. One wbsite that exemplifies this is the website reddit.com. This
website is comprised of user submitted links which are then organized by their own unique "subreddit".
For example the subreddit r/tattoos is dedicated to its users submitting images of their tattoos or a
tattoo artist can display their work. Or r/videos which contains links to funnny or interesting videos
typically from youtube or any other video hosting site. The users can vote on the links based on whether
they like or dislike it or as they call it upvote and downvote. The posts that are upvoted the most are
then displayed on the "front page".
Florian Cramer "Concepts, Notations, Software, Art"
In the introduction to this piece, the author explains how code, and programming in general, are ignored
because they occur behind the scenes and are never explicitly mentioned when discussing the art that they
produce. Most digital art is essentially an algorithm, especially those generated by computers. An algorithm
is basically a set of instructions that computer programs follow and algorithms don't necessarily have to be
very complicated in order to function. Also many algorithms can generate different products depending on the
inputs they are given or data they collect. Something that demonstrates this is Scott Draves' program called
electric sheep. This program that you can install on your computer and while your computer "sleeps" it connects
with other computers that also have the program and together create abstract art known as "sheep". People can then
vote on their favorite and those get saved and added to the the program's gene pool. Elements of the favorites are
then passed on to the countless new art that is generated everyday.
