just a quick thought: visiting ars electronica and finding Listening Post by
Hansen and Rubin as the winner of the interactive category really advocates
the abandonment of current categories.
There was a lot of wonderment at this piece being regarded as an interactive
work – though this issue was not publicly addressed during the winners’
presentation. Though the piece is based on the real-time interaction of chat
users and translates these data into a visual and auditive dramaturgy, the
main qualities of the piece lie in its sonic composition, the real-time
process of data collection on the Net the and the superior but rather
traditional temporal and spatial design.
Discussing the piece under the perspective of interactivity does not make
sense, so the question remains if it is fruitful to discuss it under the
perspective of new media art…. due to its formal maturity and its object
quality – that was also criticized by some people – it could work easily in
any institutional and contemporary art environment e.g. a museum…so what
does this mean for our categories?
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