The Historical Background of Interactive Art

Some of the earliest forms of interactive art began in the 1920’s (Wikipedia) and can be seen in some of Marcel Duchamp’s work of that time. In the 1960’s interactive art began to flourish as artists of that time wanted to give the viewers the ability to engage in the creativity making. By the 1990’s computer based artworks took up much of the interactive art pieces. Also at this time museums began using the interactive tools to educate museum attendees.

What does this say about us as 21st century folks? Does this mean that we now have such a low attention span that all art must be interactive for us to understand or care enough for us to attend to it? I do not believe so. I think what interactive art such as Snibbes says about us in the 21st century is that we are more inclusive and that art is no longer about the artist but rather about the artist and the viewer. This is great as it makes for more dynamic pieces. It also brings up how technology has become a big part of our lives. Many of us can agree that technology can give us much pleasure however it also can produce certain anxieties. Maybe other interactive art pieces in the future will attend to this theme.

Will this type of art lead to a reduction of more traditional, non-interactive art? My opinion to this is no. I think that it will inform non-interactive art in ways we cannot yet imagine. For instance some thought photography would make painting obsolete when in fact it freed up painting to break away from documenting how things looked to more loose interpretations.