What is Interactive Art?
One of my passions – both personally and professionally – is interactive art. I love the idea of an art show that doesn’t distance the artist from the visitor - where the visitor becomes a participant or a pivotal piece of the art form.
As an avid PC gamer for many years now, the evolution of art into an interactive format seemed inevitable. I mean, video games are an art form in themselves. Every night, after working at the studio, having dinner, getting my daughter ready for bed, I head to the battlestation and ‘interact’ with this format of digital art. (This sounds elevated. To be honest, my wife would probably say I just ‘pew pew pew’ at the screen for a few hours.)
But I, like so many others – and so many more during the pandemic – enjoy gaming because it allows us to experience things we otherwise would not be able to. It lets us feel suspense, triumph, and defeat. We input a series of actions, and see where the game takes us.
Interactive art in public spaces has the potential to do that – and more. Which is why I think it’s so important to promote awareness of the medium.
But before I get ahead of myself, maybe a quick explainer.
I. When did interactive art ‘begin’?
The Tate cites the late 1950’s as the period when interactive art emerged. This wasn’t in any way digital, but the idea of participation and ‘closing the gap’ between artist and viewer was there. The art “became more participatory and inclusive” with sculptures that could be touched. The Tate references an installation in 1971, where the artist Gordon Matta-Clark cooked a pig under the Brooklyn Bridge and served pork sandwiches as part of the performance.
There’s also Rirkrit Tiravanija’s work in the 90s where the artist served rice and Thai green curry as both the art and dinner. A video from MOMA goes into detail about the work:
https://assets.moma.org/momaorg/shared/video_file/video_file/1189/Rirkrit_Free-h264-640-360_1.mp4
But before we get side-tracked with food…
II. Digital interactive art
The next step in the interactive art movement started with the question: how will participants respond to technology? The international art collective teamLab have really promoted this area of digital art with their installations around New York, London, Singapore and more – and that’s been fantastic for idNerd’s confidence in the medium in the modern age.
There is a quote in MyModernMet from teamLab where the team actually says, “When an artwork made using digital technology changes based on the presence or behavior of visitors, it causes the boundaries between artwork and visitor to become blurred.”
The principles of interactive art, originating over 70 years ago, are still alive and well in today’s digital world.
But actually - before the teamLabs and Moment Factories of the world, there were electronic artist pioneers like Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (born in 1967 in Mexico City), who set the foundation for technological theatre, performance and audience participation, or Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b. 1965), Pierre Huyghe (b. 1962), and Philippe Parreno (b. 1964).
In 1998, Gonzalez-Foerster, Huyghe and Parreno actually held an exhibition in Paris which aimed to show how participants could interact with art and social environments. The visitors had to be ‘activated’ so that the work could be experienced.
III. What kinds of ways can we make digital interactive art?
The skies the limit here. Gonzalez-Foerster used lamps and infrared sensors for his ‘Séance de Shadow II (bleu)’ installation in 1998. Huyghe’s more recent work, After Alife Ahead (2017), uses an augmented reality (AR) app to add a virtual pattern to a physical ecosystem he created with bacteria, algae, human cancer cells, and a peacock.
teamLab’s installations are perhaps a little more commercially viable – like their most recent ‘Aerial Climbing over the Typhoon’ (2021), which suspends bars so that people can climb and experience digital vortexes. Or Moment Factory’s ‘Champs Chromatiques’ (2021) that allows visitors to experience an immersive digital lavender field.
IV. Is it Hong Kong’s turn yet?
From this (hopefully enjoyable!) history lesson, it’s clear that interactive art is not exclusive to any one country or continent, so it does make me wonder: when is Hong Kong interactive art scene going to take off?
I commute from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island every day for work, and the number of buildings that have potential for a killer digital interactive art installation but haven’t even considered it as an option (i.e. not even an LED or TV wall display installed on a prime viewing area)… is a little tragic.
Whereas other cities, like Singapore, Tokyo and some areas of mainland China, are really pushing the envelope with cultural experiences to attract both domestic and international tourists, Hong Kong is still relying on, well, the same light show at the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront (that’s been mostly unchanged since 2004).
In summary, Hong Kong craves more cultural experiences and, in true city style, we’re probably going to be looking for interactive art that’s more unique to our city and values. As such, I don’t think it’s a simple import job - but I don’t think that should stop any artist in the city from looking into the space.
I think it’s time to start our own history in interactive art, what do you think?