Even before analyzing the word or the history of “multimedia”, I have pre-conception. Whenever I saw the multimedia or interactive art exhibited in Seoul, there were always some problems. The works supposed to move were stopped because of the safety problem or sometimes even the artists just left them because they couldn’t fix it during the exhibition. And if the works were moving, the movements were too tough, simple and indelicate so it didn’t make any impression. In my experience, the words ‘interactive, technology, multimedia (art)” mean dull, broken down often, and stopped. So after reading this essay, I realized that I got totally different experience and approaches where the multimedia started.
In this essay, the author focused on Richard Wagner‘s “Total Artwork”. He tried to make a comprehensive integration of the arts, totalizing effect of music drama. And John Cage was mentioned as the key performance artist to influence the next generation artists such as Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins and Nam June Paik.
The most important scientist among the artists was Billy Klüver who “conceived the notion of equal collaboration between artist and engineer.” He made a lot of artworks with artists and founded E.A.T (Experiments in Art and Technology) to connect artists and engineers to create new works.
I thought that the notion of “interactivity, integration, multimedia” could expand to the way more than two elements/media/people can connect and communicate with each other. It’s not only about the mechanical art using technology, but also about the relationships between artists and audiences, artists and scientists in a non-hierarchical structure.
After reading the essay, I thought about “the Death of the Author” written by Roland Barthes. In his essay, he argues that writing and author are unrelated and the interpretation of the writing is only up to viewer. After blurring the boundaries between artists and audiences, and artworks and viewers, what will remain? Maybe we don’t need the words “artist”, and “audience” because there’s no border anymore. We can call just “user” or “maker” of the system. Let’s imagine the future of the art, could it be “prosumer“?
I like your concept “prosumer”, an common issue in communication studies to discuss about all participants on the Internet. Everyone has their own right to decide the story’s lines and outcome, blurring the boundaries between the producers and the consumers!
Excellent! You have already moved into concepts that are important extensions of the fundamental concepts of integration, interactivity, etc. The blurring of boundaries between artist and viewer, or artist and audience is a key idea, and one we will talk extensively about throughout the semester. Today in fact, we will discuss the idea of the Happening, which Billy Klüver was closely related to, and the Homage to New York is essentially a kind of Happening or performance work. This history of new media has in fact, not necessarily been the death of the artist, but rather the changing role of the artist, as well as the viewer. The artist may give up control, but the overall design or concept of an interactive work is an important, evolving aspect of the artistic role in interactive media art.
Now maybe your experience in Korea with broken down media artworks could be more closely aligned with the idea of the death of the artist or the artwork. I have known that predicament all too well!
One of the biggest challenges facing creatives today is that they are fast becoming divorced from the technological advancements that are coming along with each passing day. It really requires more effort on the part of creatives to stay updated. Perhaps it would be beneficial for technologists and creatives to re-establish the relationships that Klüver had with artists to push for better integration and interfacing between technology and art.