The Influence of Technology on Postmodern Art Interactivity, Storytelling and Narrativity

1. The Influence of Technology on Postmodern ArtInteractivity, Storytelling and Narrativity Edel Madden & Fiona Power

2. Introduction • Our objective is to evaluate how technology has influenced the world of Postmodern Art • We have researched theories relating to Postmodernism, the interpretation of Art ,and how technology is influencing artists • The artists we have looked at work with concepts relating to narratives, storytelling,computer technology and interactivity.

3. Postmodern Art • Over the past decade the world of art has experienced a tectonic shift • Digital Technology has arrived as a component of everyday life and Art on a global scale • We are living in a technologically saturated world and Art reflects the world we live in • There is a growing trend towards new media art eg. Installation work, lens based art, interactive art, on line exhibitions etc. • Museums struggle to keep up as distances shrink and audiences too are changed by the presence of technology

4. The Interpretation of Art • The viewer interacts with a piece of art and subjectively decides the meaning of the work • Digital art and New Media art mean that art is now becoming more interactive and accessible to the viewer • The viewer still ultimately decides on the meaning of a work of art but the process may now be changed by the interactivity and hands-on approach to New Media Art

5. The Interpretation of Art • Jacques Derrida “interpretation is a free-ranging activity more akin to game-playing than analysis” • Thomas Crowe “Faced with a mute work of art, any interested observer enters into a process of translation, making sense of it by some form of paraphrase in thought or words”

6. Conceptual Art • Postmodern Art focuses on the idea/concept of the piece and aims to break the boundaries between art, popular culture and the media • The concept is imperative and for many Postmodern Artists it is more important than the aesthetics of the piece • Conceptual art challenges the viewer to think about things they normally take for granted or in other words to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

7. Roxy Paine Paint Dipper • Paine comments on the limits of creativity with a subtle humour and dispels the myth of the transcendent artist • SCUMAK and Paint Dipper are portraits of the future in which machines will be able to mass produce artworks and in turn replace the artist • The paintings and sculptures produced by these machines display a stunted creativity

8. Roxy Paine Paint Dipper • Janet Goles “While Paine’s works are idea-driven, part of the machinery that drives them is the iorny of his loose ends”. • Paine eloquently expresses the mechanization and commodification of art • He has removed the hand of the artist and replaced it with evidence of a simple mechanical history

9. In his piece SCHMAK Paine creates a conveyor belt and uses technology to produce Sculptures mimicking the mass production of any given commodity • The form of each Sculpture varies slightly depending on how the polethylene forms and dries yet creatively they are still stunted • Paines Art Work questions the role of the artist in a society immersed in technology and commodification

10. Mark Napier P- Soup • Napier describes his art as “ et art ”He creates online artwork that is about the internet and cannot exist outside of it. • These works explore the idea of ownership,authority, territory, and communication in the virtual world. • He creates software that talks directly to the internet and appropriates the text, images and data that make up the web

11. Potatoland • His work Potatoland includes projects such as the web shredder which redisplays any web page selected by the user while totally ignoring the HTML tags • He uses programming languages to create these interfaces. However he allows for the coding process to create unforeseen proximities that add another dimension to the work

12. Storytelling • Story is the richest heritage of Human Civilization, since beginning of time. • Storytelling is an effective means of communication of knowledge and social values. • Storytelling enables us to understand and make meaning in our lives. • Storytelling has emerged from the oral tradition into Modern day representations eg. Movies, Internet, Digital Video and photography. • Digital Storytelling represents a challenging way for the development of future applications and Interactive Arts.

13. Interactive Storytelling • U. Spierling “Interactive Storytelling instead relies on a predefined story a specific plot concerning facts and occurrences only the telling of the story is done interactively” • Digital Media is used to support the creation of generating stories in Art works • There is a conceptual structure that is used by Artists to create digital Stories • The story content within Art works can give the user knowledge and be educational by acting as a performance based learning experience • VISTA Project: Virtual Interactive Storytelling Agents.

14. Narratives & Interactive Narratives • C. A. Lindley “In it’s broadest sense a narrative may be regarded as an experience in time that has some kind of feeling of unity and integrity” • Life is truly the great narrative! • Interactive narratives are becoming a popular subject of research. People from all backgrounds approach topic from different angles. • Narrative elements are coherent in Interactive art works

15. Siggraph 2000 Text Rain • Camille Utterback & Romy Achituv • This is an interactive installation that blurs the boundary between the familiar and the magical • The text responds to the participants motions. Taken from poem, ‘Talk You’ by Evan Zimroth 1993. • Reading the poem in the Text Rain Installation becomes a physical rather than cerebral endeavor

16. Siggraph 2000 Magic Book • Created by Students and Researchers from the University of Washington • This work explores the transition from physical reality to virtual reality • A Normal story book with a head mounted display (HMD) • Several Readers experience virtual scenes from the magic book together at the same time

17. Living Book of the Senses • Created by Diane Gromala. Chair of Siggraph 2000. • Sensorial interactive experiences, using a headset, head tracker and colour camera. • 3D mixed realities. A physical reality mixed with a virtual reality. • A narrative media to communicate and become aware of ones sensorial experiences.

18. Siggraph 2000: Excretia • Diane Gromala • A typeface that responds in real time to a users physical states. • Through a biofeedback device, brainwaves drive changes in the font. Morphing. • Writing as a reflective interface.

19. Citroen C4 Car Advertisement • Directed by Neil Blomkamp. • Best TV Car Ad of 2004. • Concept taken from kids cartoon Transformers. • It takes a traditional Narrative and transforms it by using New Media. • Citroen is re-inventing itself. Eye catching styling, innovative new technologies. High levels of practicality and refinement.

20. Conclusion • The computer is an expressive medium that is used by the artist • Advancements in technology and digitalization have meant that art is becoming more interactive and conceptual • The role of the artist is now been challenged in a technological society • Digital art is now a key topic of research in HCI and the larger design community • Interactive Art is the way forward