The Intersubjective Horizon of Artist and Audience in the Contemporary Interactive Art (A Glance at an Interactive Project:The Heart Library)

Document Type : Original/Research/Regular Article

Author

Alzahra university

Abstract

During the modern period, art has undergone remarkable developments, the most important of which is a change of audience's standing from that of a passive consumer to an effective force that shapes the artworks and gives them meaning. In other words, the ability to create a work of art has gradually moved beyond the realm of the elites and into a more public sphere. Such a change of approach is mostly evident in the contemporary collaborative and interactive arts; the ones that basically come to existence through the participation of non-artists. It seems that we are facing a new definition of art, which, like other social concepts that are mainly called 'intersubjective', defines itself in terms of exchange, interaction, and collaboration. Inter-subjectivity is a quality that results from freeing the awareness from the bounds of a subjective mind and making it face cognitive understandings of other minds, so as to reach a common meaning, where the world of 'I' transforms into the world of 'we'. Interactive art binds the creation of the artwork to the subjective and practical collaboration of the audience, by removing the process of artistic creation from the monopoly of the subjectivity and creation of artists. Thus, this study intends to respond to this question: how does the intersubjective horizon of artists and the audience is established in the contemporary interactive art? It is assumed that beyond mere presentation of empathetic and shared content, the interactive art is the common characteristic of 'being' artist, i.e. it portrays the ability to create a work of art, and the 'creativity' in an intersubjective horizon. Interactive art, which benefits from the mediation of technology, limits the direct intervention of the artist, and removes the artwork from the artist’s monopoly to some extent. Now, interactive art engages 'others' in the process of artistic creation and guides the artist from a solipsistic egocentrism toward an intersubjective interaction. The ability of 'creation of an artwork' can no longer be regarded as an exclusive gift for the artists. The public must be offered the opportunity of artistic creation, even if under the guidance of the artists. Moreover, interactive art is an 'experience-driven' action, meaning that the aesthetic perception is rooted within the 'process' of the creation, and the action of the participant and the aesthetic experience resulting from interaction with the system are considered important. This study aims to explain the various aspects of intersubjective communications of the artist and the audience in the contemporary interactive art. To this end, George Poonkhin Khut's interactive project called 'The Heart Library' has been selected for case study. As the theoretical basis of this interactive artwork, 'intimate aesthetics' uses a phenomenological approach to the experience of body, focusing on the confrontation of the audience with the 'body', and reflecting on it as the subject and object of contemplation. In this context, intimacy means introspection and maintaining of a close relationship with the body as the intermediary between awareness and existence; an attempt to soften the rigid boundaries of mind and body, and to reach a deep, new, and different understanding of the self; a contemplative return to the 'body', similar to what first appeared before us. The Heart Library holds 'body' and the possibility of changing the physical perception as the essence of an aesthetic experience. In this project, the artist has created an operational framework, and accompanies and guides the audience throughout their inward journey to create a new experience. In order to prove his conscious and dynamic self, the interacting audience, that stands before his own visualization, chooses a position, focuses on it closely, gives existence to the interactive artwork and determine its final form through the visible change that he produces in the artwork's form (visualization of body). In this study, data were collected through documentary research, and examined through a descriptive-analytical method. In conclusion, the interacting audience of this work stands on a par with the artist in determining and influencing the creation of the artwork, through the visible change that they can consciously produce in the visualization of the body, and final form of the artwork. In other words, the result of this interactive experience belongs to both the artist and the audience: the artist's proposal for the creation of a new awareness (awareness of the body) and its materialization by the audience; a shared meaning and content that the audience contributes to its creation along with the artist. In the interactive work 'The Heart Library', the creation and visualization of the bodily awareness has been shaped in the intersubjective horizon of the artist and the participating audience: in other words, the experience of the self and the body results from an intersubjective phenomenology. Not only 'creation' turns into a shared, intersubjective achievement, but also, the sharing of experience through the designing of body maps and dialogue with the artist and the visitors, places personal perceptions of the experience of the 'body' at an intersubjective level, and expands and enriches the resulting awareness.

Keywords

References

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• http://en.wikipedia.org [Accessed 1 January 2016]
 

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  • Receive Date: 06 April 2019
  • Accept Date: 06 April 2019

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