Field Report #2

Each year the Milwaukee Art Museum hosts a large number of very exciting guest exhibits, and this year is no exception to that. From October fourth to mid-January, the museum will be hosting, one the most exciting shows yet, Act React. The exhibit is comprised of contemporary pieces that call for the viewer to activate, and be a part of the piece. Interactive art is a modern art form in our increasingly digital world, that is based around viewer participation. The artists that gave created these 10 pieces are all pioneers in the field of interactive art and all are very entrancing and fascinating to see. Some of the more notable pieces however include pieces by Scott Snibbe and, possibly the most interesting, Janet Cardiff.
As you walk into the exhibit, a large, square pad is placed on the floor next to the entrance of the exhibit. A large projector is shining down on this pad and as you walk across it, a line appears on the pad in-between you and another person. This pad on the floor is really called a retroreflective floor. The piece only works if there are two or more people on this pad a given time. This is a piece by Scott Snibbe entitled, Boundary functions. As the viewers walk around this pad, the lines separating them, move as they move, while staying an exact distance from the people. The only way to make the line disappear is to reach out and physically touch the person. The piece invites and holds the viewers attention and participation. Just run around and notice that the line is will follow you where ever you may be standing. The movement and non-breaking down of the line separating you and another , also opens the door for some interpretation of the piece, why Snibbe is having you do this? There is a boundary separating you from the others, and is keeping a certain distance from others, could that mean something? Perhaps Snibbe is making a comment on our human society. Maybe we all keep boundaries from others, and the only way to get rid of boundaries are to touch and become one with other beings. The artist isn’t there to offer any enlightenment so its up to a viewers own imagination. This piece would be nothing without the viewer there, it wouldn’t even work to start off with. It needs a person to even turn the thing on. But beyond that, its up to you to interpret this piece. All the he gives you is a line to follow and you are to build off of that and go from there.
Possibly the strangest, but yet amazing, pieces in Act and react is Janet Cardiff’s To Touch. It is a sound activation piece, where you walk into a dark room, with a spot light on an old wooden table. Due to the low light around the rest of the room, the 20 different speakers used, are more like little black shadows and unable to define what they are. Once the table is touched, strange noises begin to a rise from the corners of the room. The sounds become louder and human voices begin saying disjointed sentences like, your skin’s so soft” and “out your hand on my breast.” Unsure of where this is all coming from, a viewer must then listen more closely to comprehend what exactly is going on. But the visual stays the same, just a wooden table. The piece relies on the sound effect and words being said all around the room. You must now paint the picture in your own mind. You are provided with what the picture may sound like, but the exact detail of the setting is up to you. This piece works so well on an artistic level. Lets say we have a painting of the outdoors in spring. Now we have all the detail of the landscape, the sky and the people in the image. However, we are never offered with an idea of what this painting might sound like. This is coming from a whole new direction, and new art form. The freedom to make up an image in your mind and be provided with a sound counterpart to that, is simply an phenomenal experience. Cardiff offers nothing but room for a viewer to be involved with this experience. Its up to you, you decide what the image is and what exactly is going on. Without sight is up to the imagination, however with sound, sight becomes almost unnecessary in art at times due to the fact that we can just make it up in our own minds. We have the ability to be creative, lets use it and see what happens.
While both of these pieces are very much similar, they are also very different from one another. They both are, fundamentally, interactive art pieces that call for the activity and involvement of an audience. Both of these artists want to know what you, the viewer thinks, so they leave room for you to bring in your own interpretations. However, they call upon you in different amounts. With To Touch, Cardiff leaves visual involvement for the viewer. You have to paint the picture in your mind. But she provides an audio compliment to this, so there is some that the artist includes in this piece. I feel that with Boundary Functions, Snibbe has left it all to the viewer. All he provides is a line in between you an another. It’s all up to you at the point, you have to explain this for yourself. With To Touch, the audio is a bit of a clue as to what is meant with the piece, Boundary Functions doesn’t have that. To Touch also has a bit of an emotionally effect on the viewer that Boundary functions doesn’t have as well. With To Touch, the sound effect and voices were chosen to set a mood with the piece. They are similar in tone and the way pitches change. Snibbe’s work has a bit of a mood as well, it is meant to be a fun piece. To get the viewer to walk, run, hop gallop etc. around the piece. Moods being set up in a piece, is something that I’ve only heard in music and it was cool to that other artists, were using a mood in a visual way.