Abstract (Short paper)

Keywords: Interactive art, participatory art, politically engaged art, digital art, new media art, surveillance, embodiment, interactivity.

Remote Sensing is an interactive artwork that previewed during The Image in Question conference at the University of Sydney in August 2014. Making the work led me to ask, “Why has interactive art been sidelined in recent publications about participatory art and politically engaged practice?” In this paper I discuss recent theoretical perspectives on participatory art and interactive art and the sociopolitical and cultural contexts for my work Remote Sensing, which seeks to raise awareness about surveillance. As a vehicle for social and political comment, interactive art objects might not have the ‘hit-and-run’ appeal of tactical media and augmented reality projects but as divisions between art forms become increasingly blurred perhaps it is time to rethink interactive art, which engages the user in embodied actions.

• Margaret Seymour, Lecturer, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Rozelle, Australia. Margaret is interested in the dynamic interplay of vision and spectatorship and how this interaction manifests in visual culture and in contemporary society. She often incorporates lens-based media in her artworks but doesn’t necessarily make work for the screen. Instead she employs a range of approaches to art making including sculpture, video, interactive objects and robotics. Her works have been shortlisted for numerous awards and prizes and her interactive work Pas De Deux won the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize in 2011. While it is often argued that electronic space is replacing or annihilating real space, Seymour is interested in making objects and installations where the two modes overlap and where the viewer is an integral part of the work. Margaret Seymour teaches in the Sculpture studio at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. margaretseymour.net

Full Text (PDF)  p. 234-238