Response is the Medium!

Now that we're in the "Documents" section of the book, it's harder to pick out a phrase or concept that stands out from all the rest of the text.  However, in Myron W. Krueger's piece on interactive artworks, his idea that "Response is the medium!" did stand out as thought-provoking (pg. 258).  It made me think of how, in interactive art, the medium really isn't the tools used to create the artwork or the tangible 'artwork' itself - the medium is the audience's perception of the artwork, what results from the audience's participation with the artwork, and even some recorded or documented visual of how the audience and the artwork interacted.  Mr. Krueger also says the audience "does not admire the work of the artist; he shares in its creation" (pg. 258).  I think that is an accurate point, as well: interactive art is reliant upon the audiences's participation - it does not even really exist without the audience's participation.

It reminds me of that philosophical question 'if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?'  If an interactive artwork is created and no one comes up and plays with it or looks at it, does it exist?  For that matter, if a painting is created and nobody ever looks at it (taking the original artist out of the equation), does the artwork within the painting exist?  Is Michelangelo's David just an oddly-carved rock until someone sees the figure of a man inside it?  Does a painting or a sculpture have a story if no one is there to imagine it?

I think not.

This is a rock.  And yet, to us, it is so much more than a rock!

Shanken, Edward.  Art and Electronic Media.  New York: Phaidon Press, 2014.  Print.