Lynn Hershman: The Fantasy Beyond Control

Interaction introduces a kind of freedom that fills the emptiness and replaces the longing with hope. Lynn Hershman valued the influence of how the concept of interaction responds to people. We move forward in life, making art active instead of passive. Communication technology allows the old art fasion to diminish and now participation is encourage to create an audiences' reaction. She quotes, "Interactive system requires viewers to react. Choices must be made." This is the basis of interactive art, where the audience dabbles between reality and the perception of reality...between fantasy and real events. One of Hershman's artwork, "Deep Contact," involves a touch screen and transforms the viewer into a virtual world, with virtual characters and the viewer chooses his/her own virtual space. Adventures are created through touch, which allows a connection with the viewer and the images. In 1989, I'm sure this artwork development turned heads and shocked the passive as well as the active art movement of the times.

Max Jitter Interaction Interviews

In these C74 Perspective interviews, Max Jitter is used to construct various forms of interaction through music and education. Matthew Lewis is an art and design professor at Ohio State. He teaches Max Jitter to college students allow play and experimentation in the classroom. Most art and design classes are filled this notion of freedom of expression as well as allowing the artist to receive feedback from their audience. Unlike many design programs, Max Jitter allows the user to modify live video. This is a cool concept that I have never explored before. I was quite fascinated with the Carrie Wilson's: Music Box because she used her movements and body language to change the sound. I agree with Matthew Lewis...Max Jitter is playful and fun.

On the other hand, Jamie Lidell used Max Jitter as a musical instrument. For him, this program is his helping hand or band to his performances. In many ways, he could be considered the DJ from the future. I hardly hear about any DJ's mixing beats and sounds live from musical patch that hasn't already been pre-recorded. He also presents a valid point: the more we play with Max Jitter, the more we learn, and the "finer points come into play." Max Jitter can be a tool to acheive a goal especially for Multimedia individuals.

Messa di Voce: Fluid

Singers and Composers Jaap Blonk and Joan La Barbara use their shouts and accented vocals to create a corresponding computerized fluid graphic. The Messa di Voce program visualizes vocal sounds and transforms into a fluid motion graphic. The background is a violet red and the fluid is a light white or yellow. As Joan pronounces a "zzzz" sound, it turns these accented letters into lighter colors. The graphics are almost dreamlike. The fluid movement reminds me of a screen saver image, however it lacks interaction. This fluid has movement depending on how they annuciate the vocals. Jaap uses a lower tone voice, but it is interesting how their graphic fluids interact with one another. This speech recognition technology is art because textures are created depending on what is said and sung. This is the concert of the future where the art is the software.