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I was thinking about interactive art and I couldn’t really remember ever coming into contact with an interactive artwork in a public space. The idea of an artwork affecting the space in which it is placed, like in the “Hand from Above” piece, seems very interesting. In that case, even though nothing is physically occupying the space in which the people are standing, it still causes people within that space to react. And then I remembered that I had seen something with a very similar effect before: the interactive projection games found on the floors of malls! Just like in the art work, these games cause people to react differently to a space where nothing is really any different. It’s still just a floor, but because of the projection it becomes an interactive space.

Something else that I remembered was an animation titled “Attraction” that I came across recently. It was commissioned by a French organization in order to spread a “anti-smoking” message. Apparently the film is meant to be viewed in an internet browser, and hooks up to the user’s webcam in order to involve the viewer in the action. Not having tried it for myself, I don’t know how “interactive” it really is, but the concept of actually having an impact on an animation is really exciting to me. Some “interactive” elements seem gimmicky, whereas focusing too much on user input seems to focus more on the user than the artist in some cases. An animation where the viewer has an effect, but does not completely control the work, seems like it could be really cool.

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The thought of interactive animation made me think about video games. A very basic definition of a video game seems to be an animation that you control, where the decisions you make result in what you see on the screen. This game is called “Fotonica.” It is extremely simple, only using one button, however it is very enjoyable. It has a kind of relaxing mood to it that made me want to simply move along and go with the flow. One level is actually never-ending, and I found that level to be the most enjoyable. This game isn’t about winning, or even getting to the finish line necessarily, but I found this lack of a challenging goal made this game enjoyable and quite different from games I’m used to playing.