Seeking Deeper Contact. Interactive Art as Metacommentary. Erkki Huhtamo 1. The term 'interactivity' has been applied to such a diverse range of technological forms that its meaning has become unclear. Furthermore, a number of contradictions underlie the concept and raise innumerable questions.
This article argues that one way of approaching this problematic area is through the analysis of interactive art, since much recent work can be read as a 'metacommentary' on the state of interactivity. Through a detailed discussion of a small selection of work and their modes of address, the paper endeavours to demonstrate how interactive art can de-mythicise and de-automate prevailing discourses and applications of interactivity and thereby undertake a cultural critique of the nature of interactivity.
We have seen a proliferation of all kinds of things interactive from computer games and interactive television to interactive banking, shopping and networking. Interactivity is featured daily in a growing number of pubic discourses, from entertainment and education to marketing and even art. This proliferation and simultaneous diversification has obscured rather than clarified the concept and the range of meanings assigned to it. For example, it is not easy to fit the various 'off-line' and 'on line' applications epitomised by the differences between CD-ROM-based multimedia and the Internet under the same 'interactivity umbrella'.
As early as , one critic called interactivity the 'already soggy buzzword of the 90s' 2 If it ever had any conceptual integrity, it is quickly disappearing The word, and its most fashionable derivative, interactive media, are rapidly becoming mere floating signifiers.
Yet, one might argue that the spreading of computer-mediated interactivity in the realm of our everyday lives does make a difference: it changes our relationship to the audio-visual experience by accustoming us to a new subject position. They are ubiquitous and have a strong holding power, persuading the player into repeated, cyclical intercourse. Yet, instead of just being a bystander, the player is also given a sense of being an agent.
