Research Critique 1 – Interactivity

There are endless interactive installations to choose from, and every installation has their own merits. Nonetheless, in this post, I’ve picked out 2 installations that stood out for me.

Untitled (Plot for Dialogue)

A unique installation that transform an interior space of a late 16th century deconsecrated church in Milan into a tennis court. Did I mentioned that it was in a bright orange?

asad raza installs a tennis court within converso’s church space in milan all images © andrea rossetti

I thought the juxtaposition of a new bright orange court with a old church laden with sculpture was beautifully done. The first time I saw this installation, I thought to myself, what could this possibly be for?

As part of a programme, “inviting artists and musician to develop projects that connect with its historic and architectural features.” Raza’s main objective for this installation was to explore the ways humans use spaces through social practices. He transformed what used to be a place of worship into recreation.

The tennis installation includes “placement of lines, netting, racquets, iced jasmine tea, scent, and individual coaches.”

Visitors to the installation can choose to interact with it by playing a game of tennis with the individual coaches. Thus, engaging in a coordinated action of a back and forth of the tennis ball exchange. This action creates a rhythmic beauty, which oddly complements the frescoes surrounding the tennis court.

In this case, I believe that the viewers had the most control over the outcome of the installation. Raza provided the setting and equipment for the installation, however, it is up to the viewers how they want to interact with the space and items. For example, they can choose to engage in a slow, rhythmic game of tennis or a rapid and intense game with the individual coaches. Furthermore, without the viewer’s interaction, the installation remains static, the space just becomes a tennis court in a church.

Let’s bring it back to an installation in our backyard.

Future World: Where Art meets Science (Crystal universe)

Taken into account that the exhibition includes many different narratives, I’ll only be speaking about the narrative “Crystal Universe”.

‘Crystal Universe’ by teamLab Image courtesy of teamLab and The ArtScience Museum

Unfortunately, I haven’t actually visited the exhibition, or the Art Science Museum.

In this modern social media days, especially with the popularity of Instagram. It is not uncommon that exhibition these days include “aesthetics” elements. There is no doubt many millennial flock to aesthetics installation to add into their Instagram feed.

Future World also obviously took the opportunity to build such installations. In the “Crystal Universe” narratives, teamLab created a “Interactive 4D Vision technology and over 170,000 LED lights, giving the illusion of stars moving in space.”

The interactive element was that viewers get to change the astrological phenomenon (or the lighting) with the use of their smartphones. Thus, the viewer has some control of the artwork.

However, to me, it is pretty limited. The artist created presets on what to show, so viewers need only choose between one of the presets available. So, unfortunately, viewers don’t get to input their own “creativity” into the artwork.

Moving on, from the 2 articles, I derive 2 questions for discussion:

As an artist, would you feel comfortable with allowing viewers to have FULL control on the end product of your artwork?

AND

“Aesthetic” installations have grown popular nowadays, do you think this trend is a positive impact in interactive design?

 

References

Asad Raza Installs Tennis Court Inside 16th Century Milan Church

asad raza installs neon orange, interactive tennis court inside 16th century church in milan

https://www.marinabaysands.com/museum/future-world/space.html

https://theartling.com/en/artzine/2016/05/18/teamlab-future-world-artscience-museum/