Sarah Drury & Craig Kapp

 Last week we had the privilege of getting to hear guest speakers Sarah Drury and Craig Kapp. Both artists lectured on the various mediums they use in order to creative interactive media. Sarah Drury displayed some of the work she has done with interactive performances. There were two pieces I enjoyed particularly, first the piece where Sarah had a dancer perform onstage with sensors connected to her body. The sensors were used for a robot that was also performing onstage. The intention behind this work was to create a machine which could actually replicate a persons movement and behavior. With this in mind Sarah's thoughts were to try and create a machine that was in a way connected to a human life. One question that comes to mind when thinking about Sarah's piece is exactly what was the thought process that inspired such an idea. I found this concept to be intriguing because it is highly futuristic and to my own amazement, technology is becoming so advanced that human behavior within a robot is becoming possible. To follow her thought pattern as to how she arrived to such a concept would be very interesting as an artist.
     Also, I enjoyed the other piece Sarah showed which was another interactive piece. The difference between this piece and the first piece was that the performer in this piece could be anyone. Sarah set up a video where she took video in one room and in another she had a booth where anyone could go and create sounds which would be recorded and mixed in with the video. The intentions behind this piece was to create interactive media which could mix a person's audio with video. It is my understanding that Sarah had set up a system so that the video would go along with the sound of the person's voice. I thought this was highly groundbreaking in the sense that a person's voice is almost like their fingerprint. Each person had their own unique voice. The sound bank which she set up for the piece also contained over a thousand voices which would be mixed in with the video so that just about every time a person views the work they would be viewing something different from the last performance. As an artist who appreciates interaction between audience and media I thought this piece was amazing and highly inspiring.
     Next was Craig Kapp, who spoke on a new wave of technology called augmented reality. Craig spoke about his theory of cycle in technology which showed many of the technological trends which have formed over the past few generations. One fact that I found to be very interesting was that augmented reality has been googled more over the past 2 years than it had in 2008 or 2007. This was really interesting because it shows that people are becoming more aware of this new technological breakthrough and they are becoming more immersed in it as well. Craig defined virtual reality as a complete immersion within a synthetic reality whereas an augmented reality is a predominantly real space where virtual elements can be inserted in real time. In other words augmented reality picks the aspects of virtual reality that it wants to use and creates them within our world through the use of a webcam or a camera. One example that many people are familiar with is the first down mark on NFL television broadcasts. Augmented reality has been around for a long time however it has been protected by patents by it's creators. Only recently has AR been "do-able" on a consumer grade device. The popularity of A.R. has been driven by fast, cheap, computers. Craig breaks down augmented reality into 2 methods. First is the mirror method in which a person sees reflection with augmented reality and the second is through a lense which shows augmented reality as you look through it.
     I enjoyed looking at some of these examples in effect as Craig showed us a number of projects he has worked on in the past. One example I liked was the star chasing game which was used to help rehabilitate children and adults who have suffered from accidents and are looking to learn how to use their arms or legs again. This game seemed to be very helpful in getting these people to learn how to heal themselves. It is especially successful for children as these games are targeted to market them in particular. I also enjoyed the zoobook project because it was a great idea to market which also has a lot of interaction with the consumer so that they can even put themselves inside the game as well. Overall I thought both speakers were great and the material presented was amazing. After this lecture I thought a lot about how I would like to incorporate these ideas into my work. I believe an interactive piece makes the work personal to not just one person but each and every person who has the privilege of experiencing it. The beautiful thing about work like this is that it doesn't get old, each and every time it is used is new and exciting to the audience.

Margaret Morse: "Video Installation Art"

     Morse's article "Video Installation Art" discusses the basic aspects behind creating an installation piece. She mentions that most Installation art requires a space which is hollowed out before setting up the actual work. She also compares video installation to other types of media within the visual art realm such as a drawing or a painting. One mentionable difference between these types of media is that installation video is defined by its space and this space is supposed to give meaning to the work or add meaning to the work within the piece. Paintings, on the other hand, can be moved from gallery to gallery, or even museum to museum, in other words, paintings and drawings are easier to sell as a commodity because they can become mobile. Video Installations also become harder to archive. Granted there are many ways to record a video installation through other mediums such as drawings, word of mouth, written description, or even a video that documents the installation. However, Morse is arguing that the actual, physical, tangible space that the installation occupies becomes just as much a part of the art, if not more than the rest of the piece. 
     Installation art is special because the frame of the work becomes the actual walls of the place it is projected in. The viewer also becomes the artist and in some way, part of the work because they are watching a performance they are in some way a performer within the piece.  This also separates the video installation from other types of media. Because installations are often not commodifable, artists will need to get a commercial sponsor to supply the location for the work. Often these sponsors are a corporation or even a museum that has a large enough area to provide space for the installation. Having a work of art that is not commodifable is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing but it is often more difficult to sell than a painting or a drawing.
     Morse also makes the statement that installations are often similar to a film or a movie you would see in a theater in the fact that they immobilize the viewer and create an environment where a screen is so big that they can make the viewer feel as if they are in the actual environment projected on the screen. The benefit to this is that it draws the viewer into the artist's projection allowing them to project a particular feeling and narrative on to the viewer without the dangers of actually being in that place. For example the artist can present horror or adventure to their audience through this projection and the immobilized audience can safely experience the intended narrative through a particular space which can be far far away from what is captured on screen. This is important because it makes it possible for video to be commodified on a mainstream scale as well as capture the emotions and experiences the artist intended to project to the world.