1030 numerals

1030 numerals

After seeing Go Hye-jin's current exhibition "Phantom Studies"

I have a thing about interactive art, particularly involving installations that have motion detection and allow people to wave their arms in front of a large screen to change the images or sound. It's been around for decades, but it seems to be everywhere. It's very common for government funded exhibitions presumably bc the people who decide these things think it will draw kids and art illiterate adults. And fair enough. Every serious artist was once a kid who was at some point knocked out by something flashy and impressive which sparked their interest and they went on to deepen their involvement, etc. I get it. The ones I have a problem with are "serious" artists who use it in "seriously" themed works.

I've seen interactive elements shoved into good concepts, eclipsing the substance of the work and having little if any relevance to what point the artist is trying to get across. Like putting a swing set in St. Peter's cathedral. The kids will love it. To some, it's kind of condescending. It's chocolate sprinkles on caviar. Are two dumb analogies are enough? Ok.

BUT having said that...

Go hye-jin's Phantom Studies solves this problem by allowing the audience to become part of the visual experience in a somewhat passive way. A repurposed stethoscope becomes a contact microphone placed, naturally, over your heart causes the generative visuals projected on the wall to pulsate with your heartbeat. This instantly draws one into the work as a collaborator rather than "look! My hand is pushing the colors around!" as is so often the case. She has invited us to become part of the work without obscuring the mood or message she's conveying. The work is subtly augmented, rather than replaced, by the person, who is poetically offering (donating?) their heart to the piece, allowing us to passively contribute without inviting us to be "creative" participants while maintaining the spirit and intentions of the work. The key here, i think, is the choice of the heartbeat contact microphone instead of some motion capturing mechanism which without fail gets between the art and the audience as it becomes a toy rather than a conduit for thought and emotion. Ms. Go understands this problem and has brilliantly solved it in a rather poetic way here.

I definitely plan to incorporate interactive elements into my future works now that she's demonstrated a way to do it that actually doesn't disrupt the audience's apprehension of the work. It requires careful consideration, like the other elements, of course. I suspect there will always be some distraction caused by the tech, but perhaps once it becomes less of a novelty, then it will settle in as more of an accepted part of the medium and no one will give it a second thought.

Imagine the first audiences to hear a phonograph, or see a film projected on a wall.. some must've thought it was pure witchcraft.