Skateable Art - Interactive Art?

I was thinking about what is interactive art that isn't supposed to be and I thought about skateable art. It's art, it's skateable, it's interactive! I think all art can be interactive to a degree, but not all art is hands on or physical. Being a skater myself, I'm all about skating obstacles, and if there is a piece of art that is a skateable obstacle, I'll try to skate it. I think it's a different way of looking at a piece of art when you skate it. Everyone interprets art differently and not everyone understands exactly what the artist wants their audience to experience. There are no real directions for interpreting art (most of the time). There are no rules that you have to follow, so why can't someone interpret a piece of art as an object to express themselves on? Here are some pictures of examples of what I think is some skateable art -

Ideas For Installment

For our class installment piece, I was trying to think of some ideas for the gallery show. My first thought - A hall of echoes. Each part of the room has a different pitch of echo ranging from no echo to a lot of echoes or very loud echoes. As the viewer walks through the exhibit, they hear the different echoes. I thought this might be difficult to accomplish at the gallery because of the amount of building time and materials that would be needed, but then I thought about echo holes. The class could make interactive echo holes. Each hole in a wall could be the same size at the entrance, but inside would be small or large to create different echoes. The inside would be painted black so that they all appeared the same size. The viewer would have to stick their head into the holes to hear the echoes. Maybe this is just a starting point for somehthing bigger dealing with sound, as this idea is pretty minimalistic in thought - black holes that you talk into.

Just A Thought

So, we're doing this video project in class, and we were talking about whether we wanted to use audio and/or voices. Then I thought, why don't we make it silent and have the interaction be the viewers inserting audio tracks over the videos we shot. The responses we got would be very very different and it would be really interesting to see how people interpreted different scenes. Sound and audio is very important in video, whether it's there or not. It can change the mood or feel of the film, and it can act as a cue. Writing about it and thinking about what the responses would be like makes me think of old dubbed Japanese movies like Godzilla.

Couple in a Cage

We watched a video in class called "Couple in a Cage." It was about an art exhibit that took place in museums around the world. The exhibit showcased "aboriginals" from a remote jungle culture on an island off the coast of the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico. The characters (I say characters because the aboriginals were actors) were dressed similar to what I would call a mix between Geronimo and Billy Idol. Just watch the video if you can find it. I had it on here, but now it seems to be unavailable to the public on youtube. If you can find it, send me a message. The artist is Coco Fusco.

My first reaction was, holy crap, how could anyone possibly think this was real, but so many people who saw it thought the people were actually real natives of the Mexican Island. It was a cool exhibit though, and very powerful I think. I liked how there were different elements to the piece. Participants included the artists who are also the actors, the exhibit guides, and the people who paid to see the actors do stuff for money and take photos with the characters. Then there are the viewers. It was interesting to see the different reactions to the piece. Some were offended, some believed it to be true, and others were ashamed of being culturally related to those who didn't get it. All in all, I liked the piece and the way it was presented. The video, I think, does a good job of putting the issue in focus, and the interactivity is key in the piece because it takes it to a more powerful level.

Here's a wikipedia page on Coco Fusco. Again, sorry about the video. You should really try to find it somewhere to watch it, it's very moving.

"Smell-o-vision" and more

In class we talked about different ways that advertising can be interactive. I started to think about advertising that uses smells. It reminded me of smells used in movie theatres during a movie. I couldn't find very much information on the Web, but I remember hearing that movie theatres back in the 50's (I think), used fans and tubes to release the smell of popcorn and other concession treats in order to drive up sales during movies. The tactic was made illegal because it was so effective at the test market theatres. I heard (and this is probably just a rumor and nothing else) that Subway Sandwiches crack the doors to their stores so the fresh bread smell gets out and tempts passer byers. I know that even when it was -7 degrees outside, the Subway shop in downtown Pullman had its door cracked open. What I'm getting to is a new thing in theatres called "Smell-o-Vision."
"Smell-o-Vision"
USA Today Article
NTT Communications came up with the idea of putting aroma releasing oils under the seats of movie goers so they can experience certain elements of the movie in a different way - by smell! I thought this was cool because most interactive stuff doesn't do with smell, its mostly sight, touch, and noise. So my goal is to find interactive media that deals with taste because I can't think of anything that I've seen that has to do with taste really.

OH MY GOD HE'S DEAD!

I was going online to blog this evening, and as I was going through my old posts, I realized I had forgotten about Flappie all weekend! I quickly hit F12 to pull him up, but it was too late, he was already dead. R.I.P. Flappie. So I guess I'm not a very good interactive parent.
Flappie: January 26-February 4, 2007 (9 days). Time to revive Flappie!