Abstract

In computer-based interactive media art, the artwork should be practiced in the installation: the show and the interaction establish and expand its meaning and interpretation, including discourses through and on technology. This makes the artwork alive and viable as a transformative practice of aesthetic object and experience.

For a long time, people have talked about art as alive: in the practice of art making, the artist has surely felt that art is indeed alive. When the artist makes an artwork, s/he does not always know what the result will be and often the artwork gives an idea back to him/her during the making process. Here, ‘contingency’ is an appropriate word for expressing the phenomenon. Contingency means the artwork is alive and responsive. With today’s computer-based artwork, the artist usually depends on the collaborator – an engineer or a programmer – to complete the system. The artist does not fully understand the system, and does not need to. However when the artist is simultaneously the programmer, – which happens more and more frequently these days – the contingency does not work effectively. When the artist knows too much about the system s/he does not allow ‘a bug’ to work, because it is not recognised: the artist wants to make the system perfect, and ignores and discards the contingent fault or bug within the work. If instead s/he allows the artwork go its own way, it could prove productive. This letting-go by the artist could be a new and viable venue for computer-based interactive media artwork.

• Miyeon Kim Director, Space Mass, Seoul, Korea
• Dr Joonsung Yoon & Dr Dongho Kim Global School of Media, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea
• Dr Eunryoung Kim Ewha Institute for the Humanities, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

Full text (PDF)  p. 903-908