Kyle Kopta DTC 101

   S ö ke Dinkla's Toward the Origins of Interactive Art examines interactive art's inception and relation to early Futurist and Dadaist ideas as well as its implications in regards to art genre and theory. Like other unorthodox and non-traditional means of art, interactive art developed outside of conventional art institutions. Artists like Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, John Cage, and Allan Kaprow would go on to re-imagine the possibilities and applications of audience participation in a work.    What stood out to me in this reading was the relationship between the artist and the audience rather than the one between art and audience. It's easy to assume that the interaction of a piece has an inverse relationship with the authority of the artist in their own work, but Kaprow's Happenings illustrate that participation exists on the edge between artistic liberation and manipulation. How is the artist using the audience as a medium with which to work with?   ...

   In The Vitality of Digital Creation , Timothy Binkley argues that, while the idea of the digital image is paradoxical at first glance, computers and the digital image have become an integral part of everyday communication today. Furthermore, as the digital image becomes easier to produce and distribute, its role in our lives becomes increasingly paramount. These digital representations have a certain vitality to them because they have the potential to engage us and act in response to us.    What interested me the most in this reading was the comparing and contrasting that Binkley does with digital and analog media, not only in the ways that they influence us differently, but also in the unique implications of their representations. On one hand, digital representations are built on abstract storage and measurement. On the other, analog media focuses on concrete preservation and impressions. As someone who grew up in a digital world and continues to work in it tod...

   In the latter half of his book Program or Be Programmed, Douglas Rushkoff continues presenting the reader with the inherent biases of digital technology and how they can be reworked as a positive thing. The final principles discussed are identity, sociability, fact, and openness. Finally, above all else, it is important that we are aware of all of these biases and simultaneously understand the nuances of programming so that we do not become the programs ourselves.    Out of the remaining biases in these final chapters, I found the ideas and implications behind fact to be the most interesting and applicable to my online experience. Particularly, the comparison between the internet and a bazaar has me thinking about how I navigate this marketplace of ideas and products. Unlike generations before me, the internet is truly my one stop shop for most everything I need on a day to day basis. Aside from the products and the commercial side of the internet, the internet ...