(The following is a continuation of an interview with Alan Sondheim and Barry Smylie on their Lit[art]ure work Broken, which can be found at http://www.studiocleo.com/cauldron/volume2/contents/index.html, in Cauldron and Net's second issue.)
Is Literature of this type a spinoff of cinema? What distinguishes, for both of you, an artwork like this from, say, a noir detective drama?
Alan: Not at all; for me I don't see the similarity in the first place.
Barry: That reminds me of a television show called “Connections” based on McLuhan’s idea that what appear to be insular systems develop in “galaxies” of knowledge. Everything is interconnected; plays and oral poetry became print and print became cinema and cinema became video. Broken is most closely related to computer games and computer games contain aspects of theatre, novel, and video (multimedia). Computer games are sometimes called video games. The fact that the “user” of a video game is a player embroiled in the story suggests that the boundary between artist and audience is becoming blurred
What do both of you see as the future of work of this type? What other artists
working in this practice inspired you to venture here?
Barry: I’ve been experimenting with less linear structures, more game like architecture, and artificial intelligence. I was inspired by Alan’s work and ideas especially his thoughts on avatars and theatrical roles. Computer sprites as animated ActionScriped movieClips can be programmed to make their own choices and have a life of their own within the limits of the program and the screen stage. Within the same illusionary (virtual) environment other clips can be controlled by the user with the keyboard and mouse device. How the user interfaces with the input devices to affect the program effects how the computer controlled sprites will perform. That is fairly straight up computer gaming but Flash has two methods of animation. There is also a more traditional animated timeline which is the equivalent of a book or video or theatrical sequence that the artist controls. The two approaches to computed animation can be made to interact with each other along with the user’s input. That is: the computer controlled single frame animation and user inputs can be coaxed to move along a traditional timeline and interact with it all becoming aspects of selecting
