Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art
An art-historical perspective on interactive media art that provides theoretical and methodological tools for understanding and analyzing digital art.

Since the 1960s, artworks that involve the participation of the spectator have received extensive scholarly attention. Yet interactive artworks using digital media still present a challenge for academic art history. In this book, Katja Kwastek argues that the particular aesthetic experience enabled by these new media works can open up new perspectives for our understanding of art and media alike. Kwastek, herself an art historian, offers a set of theoretical and methodological tools that are suitable for understanding and analyzing not only new media art but also other contemporary art forms. Addressing both the theoretician and the practitioner, Kwastek provides an introduction to the history and the terminology of interactive art, a theory of the aesthetics of interaction, and exemplary case studies of interactive media art.

Kwastek lays the historical and theoretical groundwork and then develops an aesthetics of interaction, discussing such aspects as real space and data space, temporal structures, instrumental and phenomenal perspectives, and the relationship between materiality and interpretability. Finally, she applies her theory to specific works of interactive media art, including narratives in virtual and real space, interactive installations, and performance—with case studies of works by Olia Lialina, Susanne Berkenheger, Stefan Schemat, Teri Rueb, Lynn Hershman, Agnes Hegedüs, Tmema, David Rokeby, Sonia Cillari, and Blast Theory.

1115264646
Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art
An art-historical perspective on interactive media art that provides theoretical and methodological tools for understanding and analyzing digital art.

Since the 1960s, artworks that involve the participation of the spectator have received extensive scholarly attention. Yet interactive artworks using digital media still present a challenge for academic art history. In this book, Katja Kwastek argues that the particular aesthetic experience enabled by these new media works can open up new perspectives for our understanding of art and media alike. Kwastek, herself an art historian, offers a set of theoretical and methodological tools that are suitable for understanding and analyzing not only new media art but also other contemporary art forms. Addressing both the theoretician and the practitioner, Kwastek provides an introduction to the history and the terminology of interactive art, a theory of the aesthetics of interaction, and exemplary case studies of interactive media art.

Kwastek lays the historical and theoretical groundwork and then develops an aesthetics of interaction, discussing such aspects as real space and data space, temporal structures, instrumental and phenomenal perspectives, and the relationship between materiality and interpretability. Finally, she applies her theory to specific works of interactive media art, including narratives in virtual and real space, interactive installations, and performance—with case studies of works by Olia Lialina, Susanne Berkenheger, Stefan Schemat, Teri Rueb, Lynn Hershman, Agnes Hegedüs, Tmema, David Rokeby, Sonia Cillari, and Blast Theory.

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Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art

Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art

by Katja Kwastek
Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art

Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art

by Katja Kwastek

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Overview

An art-historical perspective on interactive media art that provides theoretical and methodological tools for understanding and analyzing digital art.

Since the 1960s, artworks that involve the participation of the spectator have received extensive scholarly attention. Yet interactive artworks using digital media still present a challenge for academic art history. In this book, Katja Kwastek argues that the particular aesthetic experience enabled by these new media works can open up new perspectives for our understanding of art and media alike. Kwastek, herself an art historian, offers a set of theoretical and methodological tools that are suitable for understanding and analyzing not only new media art but also other contemporary art forms. Addressing both the theoretician and the practitioner, Kwastek provides an introduction to the history and the terminology of interactive art, a theory of the aesthetics of interaction, and exemplary case studies of interactive media art.

Kwastek lays the historical and theoretical groundwork and then develops an aesthetics of interaction, discussing such aspects as real space and data space, temporal structures, instrumental and phenomenal perspectives, and the relationship between materiality and interpretability. Finally, she applies her theory to specific works of interactive media art, including narratives in virtual and real space, interactive installations, and performance—with case studies of works by Olia Lialina, Susanne Berkenheger, Stefan Schemat, Teri Rueb, Lynn Hershman, Agnes Hegedüs, Tmema, David Rokeby, Sonia Cillari, and Blast Theory.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262317221
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 09/20/2013
Series: The MIT Press
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 4 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Katja Kwastek is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at VU Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dieter Daniels vii

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

1 Interactive Art-Definitions and Origins 1

(New) Media Art, Computer Art, Digital Art, and Interactive Art 1

Aesthetic Strategies in Processual Art 9

Art, Technology, and Society 39

2 Interaction as an Aesthetic Experience 43

The Artwork as the Object of Aesthetics 43

Aesthetic Experience 48

Aesthetics of Response 52

Aesthetics of Process 56

Methodology 62

3 The Aesthetics of Play 71

Art and Play from Schiller to Scheueri 72

Characteristics of Play 74

Performance and Performativity 81

4 The Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art 89

Actors 90

Space 99

Time 109

Interactivity and Interaction 119

Materiality and Interpretability 139

The Ontological Status of Interactive Art 163

5 Case Studies 177

Case Study 1 Olia Lialina, Agatha Appears 177

Case Study 2 Susanne Berkenheger, Bubble Bath 186

Case Study 3 Stefan Schemat, Wasser 193

Case Study 4 Teri Rueb, Drift 203

Case Study 5 Lynn Hershman, Room of One's Own 209

Case Study 6 Agnes Hegedüs, Fruit Machine 220

Case Study 7 Tmema, The Manual Input Workstation 225

Case Study 8 David Rokeby, Very Nervous System 234

Case Study 9 Sonia Cillari, Se Mi Sei Vicino 241

Case Study 10 Blast Theory, Rider Spoke 248

Conclusion 261

Notes 267

Bibliography 325

Index 349

What People are Saying About This

Jay David Bolter

In Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art, Kwastek moves with impressive ease and careful scholarship across decades of aesthetic theory and artistic practice. Kwastek's book is the definitive study of this important body of art that lies tantalizingly on the border between the traditional art world and contemporary media culture.

Dieter Mersch

Katja Kwastek's outstanding book invites the reader into the fascinating world of digital art by exploring the complex relations among the technical construction, the implemented programs, the interface, and the contingent use of individual actors. Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art delivers a compelling, comprehensive overview of both the theoretical background of today's discourse along with rich case studies and concrete work analysis. It will be essential for practitioners and for those who are looking for precise investigations in current developments in art and aesthetics.

Endorsement

Combine the meticulousness of German academia with groundbreaking work theorizing one of my favorite subjects and you have Katja Kwastek's masterpiece, Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art. The clarity of her reasoning process throughout affords numerous opportunities to engage in dialogue with her ideas. That is why this book has the capacity to inspire many more.

Margaret Morse, Emerita Professor of Film and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz

From the Publisher

In Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art, Kwastek moves with impressive ease and careful scholarship across decades of aesthetic theory and artistic practice. Kwastek's book is the definitive study of this important body of art that lies tantalizingly on the border between the traditional art world and contemporary media culture.

Jay David Bolter, Wesley Professor of New Media, Georgia Institute of Technology

Katja Kwastek's outstanding book invites the reader into the fascinating world of digital art by exploring the complex relations among the technical construction, the implemented programs, the interface, and the contingent use of individual actors. Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art delivers a compelling, comprehensive overview of both the theoretical background of today's discourse along with rich case studies and concrete work analysis. It will be essential for practitioners and for those who are looking for precise investigations in current developments in art and aesthetics.

Dieter Mersch, Professor, University of Potsdam

Combine the meticulousness of German academia with groundbreaking work theorizing one of my favorite subjects and you have Katja Kwastek's masterpiece, Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art. The clarity of her reasoning process throughout affords numerous opportunities to engage in dialogue with her ideas. That is why this book has the capacity to inspire many more.

Margaret Morse, Emerita Professor of Film and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz

Margaret Morse

Combine the meticulousness of German academia with groundbreaking work theorizing one of my favorite subjects and you have Katja Kwastek's masterpiece, Aesthetics of Interaction in Digital Art. The clarity of her reasoning process throughout affords numerous opportunities to engage in dialogue with her ideas. That is why this book has the capacity to inspire many more.

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