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"Interaction '01"Review

Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Reviewed by Michael Naimark
michael@naimark.net

Last month's "Interaction '01, Dialogue with Expanded Images," marked the fourth major biennial exhibition organized by IAMAS in Japan. IAMAS, the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, is the art and science arm of the ambitious technology initiative of the Gifu Prefecture Government, to serve as a model for the new information economy. IAMAS Director, Itsuo Sakane, who has been active in art, science, and technology since the 1960s, curated Interaction '01. His central premise is that interactivity has the unique potential of bridging disconnected disciplines, ideologies, and cultures - and nothing less.

The exhibition drew an international cast of artists, with twelve major invited installations, plus three IAMAS artist-in-residence projects and a selection of student projects. Like the past Interaction exhibitions, curation tended toward broad accessibility. This was most evident with two installations, one from the ZKM and one from Ars Electronica Futurelab. Wolfgang Muench and Kiyoshi Furukawa's "Bubbles" made elegantly simple use of participants' shadows on a projection screen to interact with computer-generated bubbles and accompanying music. Futurelab's "Tug of War" confronted participants with a synchronized force-feedback rope perfectly emanating from a life-size projection of a virtual opponent.

Much of the work celebrated science and the beauty of phenomena, reminiscent of the art and technology movement of the 1960s and 70s, or of the Bauhaus. This was best epitomized by Kodama and Takeno's "Protrude, Flow," in which black magnetized goo morphs and dances to sound input. (Although such art has often been pigeon-holed as romantic and irrelevant in these fast-paced times, it is noteworthy that "Protrude, Flow" was the surprise hit of this year's Siggraph art show.) Some of this work involved interaction with abstract imagery, such Golan Levin's whimsical interactive animations in "AVES," while others used camera-based imagery, such as Jim Campbell's "Experiments in Touching Color."

Some of the work showcased new media inventions. Arnon Yaar's "Beam of Light" made 3D scans of faces by analyzing the shape of a single vertical beam of light. Luc Courchesne's "The Visitor: Living by Number 2001" incorporated his "panoscopic" 360 degree projection system he developed last year in-residence at IAMAS. Though both works ostensibly strove toward representational accuracy, the abstractions and artifacts equally contributed to their aesthetic strength.

Relatively few works were based on strong intentional compositions made by the artists, rather than emergent compositions. Tiffany Holmes' two installations, "Surf and Spy" and "Nosce Te Ipsum," both integrated rich layers of found imagery with live cameras and body sensing. Tamas Waliczky, in-residence at IAMAS in 1998/99, produced with Anna Szepesi "The Fisherman and his Wife," a computer animation of the German folktale combining hand-drawn images, shadow theater, and 3D modeling. Tamiko Thiel, in-residence at IAMAS in 1999, produced with Zara Houshmand "Beyond Manzanar," an extensive 3D computer model of the Japanese detention camp in California during World War Two. "Beyond Manzanar" was the only explicitly political piece in the exhibition.

Issues surrounding politics, culture, and ideology were addressed head-on in a panel called "Embedding Media in Culture" held during the opening weekend. Organized by IAMAS philosophy professor Hiroshi Yoshioka, the panel included Thiel, Jean-Louis Boissier, Marina Grzinic Mauhler, and me. The plan was to discuss relationships between new media art and local, traditional, and everyday cultures, but the discussion kept leading back to relationships between art and activism. Such discourse is hardly uncommon these days, but the context here was different and noteworthy.

First, it was in Japan, where wonder, discovery, and fun often supercede politics in electronic art. This influence is obvious by comparing the past several years of ICC exhibitions to ones at the ZKM or Ars Electronica. Also, Gifu Prefecture sponsored Interaction '01, which was interested in showcasing new technology. Hence the exhibition was skewed toward enthusiasm for rather than criticism of new technology.

Most significantly, Interaction '01 was about interaction, which begs the question: is interactivity inherently activist? Granted, levels of interactivity vary widely, from unprogrammed co-creation to pre-programmed selection, and from actual control to the illusion of control. And interactivity doesn't strengthen weak art. But whether interactive art uniquely exercises the mind, body, and spirit remains an open question worthy of pursuit. Herein lies the ultimate value of Interaction '01.

For more information please see:

http://www.iamas.ac.jp/interaction/index-e.html

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