A Reflection On “Delusions of Dialogue: Control and Choice in Interactive Art”

Nowadays, as the format of arts has gone far beyond paper and pens, more and more artists use computers and new technologies to create interactive arts. Whether artworks created by computers are inherently interactive has become an aspect that people discuss a lot.

The word “interactive” indicates a mutual exchange of activities between two parties, in the case of interactive arts, the artwork and the viewer. However, to some extent, computers are designed to be discrete controlling devices that only execute instructions they received. Interactive arts bring out the issue of whether computers have their own way to respond to their surroundings, including both the environment and people.

I personally think that even though nowadays computers have the ability to learn using machine learning methods, they are fundamentally still tools that carry out the wills of people who put the instructions. The artworks using computers as mediums are embodiments of their creators’ expressions. “Tools are only as good as the person who uses it. Computers enable us to express our thoughts through a more powerful means, but the intensions of artworks are still up to what the creator or the interpreters.