Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Contemporary Art » Lost in the Fun House

Lost in the Fun House

© Christine Hamm

ITP Spring Show 2001
Interactive Telecommunications Program
Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
NYC

This was a student show, encompassing the introductory through advanced courses, and lasting only two days. Walking into the best parts of this show was like walking into a circus staged in the guts of a MacIntosh. Walking into the worst parts was like taking a trip through Barney Rubble‘s dishwashing machine when the bird who runs the wheel to power it has the flu. And mirrors, mirrors, everywhere. I’ve never seen myself digitally remastered and slowed down, broken into hundreds of slices, and reflected by snapping and waving wooden chips. And I'm not sure I needed to. So much noise, so much overstimulation! Students swearing and laughing, running to the left and the right, lights flashing and beeping, computer screens blinking and falling dead, water dribbling from this corner or that. Fountains, pillows and blankets purring and talking back. And everywhere, ah, that head-clearing scent of adolescent panic and hope.

---

Remember the end of your semester, when your big paper was due? There were always some students who could never finish anything on time. And a lot of them went into the ITP program. I heard, “It’s not quite working yet,” at least 50 times. How cruel to impose a deadline on their artistic impulses. And, how futile. Yeah, I’ve been there.

---

I thought it would be useful to write about this show because it represents a sampling of the next wave of emerging contemporary artists -- specifically, the next wave of artists who not only incorporate, but use as a focal point, interactive technology. Each student’s or class’s work was accompanied by a small written description and explanation. One such essay captured the essence of what much of the student art was attempting to do. It stated that “traditional” art is static and attempts to “spoonfeed” meaning to the audience. IT art, however, creates meaning at the intersection between audience and author. The interactivity means that the audience as well as the artist determines the form the art takes.

This attitude seems a little naive: of course “traditional” art, such as a painting, also creates its meaning at the intersection of the audience and the artist. The painting is psychologically, not physically, interactive. Each viewer brings his or her own life experience to the painting, and views the art through that experience. EVERY work of art creates meaning through an interaction with its audience.

---

The copyright of the article Lost in the Fun House in Contemporary Art is owned by . Permission to republish Lost in the Fun House in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.