Week 4 Readings

Interactivity and Agency in Real Time Systems:
This article embraces the idea of process as art as well as supports creation of interactive systems to display that process.
If artists create work that are truly interactive, where the systems created have agency and conscience choice, will the artists give up control of their pieces and the message they might be trying to express? Do artists need control over their pieces to be considered art?
What is the line between art and experimentation in robotics? Is there a distinction?

Seven Ways of Misunderstanding Interactive Art: 
Although I had not been aware of many of these misrepresentations of interactive art, I had asked one question in the previous reading that was addressed. Huhtamo portrays the artist as still being pivotal and relevant in interactive art.

On Totalitarian Interactivity: 
Lev Manovich presents an interesting argument on interactivity being a tool for manipulation. At one point in the article he talks about the trade off of mental interactivity, being the old 'interactiveness' of a person interacting with a painting, yet as we discussed in class that idea of interactiveness is limited as the subject (the artwork) isn't sharing in the experience of reacting or changing in any way to the viewer. Although much of what interactiveness is now is 'reactive' art, the idea of complete interactive art in the future can be some cause for concern in terms of manipulation. However, this could be said for most advancing technologies that, in the wrong hands, can do some damage to unaware peoples. We cannot blame the technologies for the wrong uses, rather the people using them. Societies should be taught to be critical and aware in order to avoid such a disaster.

Tangible Bits: 
This article was an interesting look at new and emerging technologies that were at the forefront in 1997. I can see how some of these ideas have developed and have become commonplace since that time. The section on GUI to TUI intrigued me after reading Manovich's article. Manovich would be horrified at the reality that the ultimate goal of these technologies is to surround users in every way at all times. It is an exciting prospect as well as an unnerving one. These technologies will ultimately be designed and used for corporations in attempts to push messages even further into consumers faces. When I think of ambient media in the periphery I think of advertisements. Although this technology comes with these consequences, there is no way to stop progress, nor should we try, it can be an instrumental tool for artists and social services.
How have we advanced further in these interfaces since the time this article was written?
What is the new interface frontier?
When are we going to see an ad on the moon's surface?