Interactivity - Zachary Liberman
Interactivity. A simple concept of involving, responding, engaging and taking part of something. Often a 2 directional process with no set limit on the amount of times it exchanges, something is presented, you interact, it reacts/responds/changes, which then follows with your own response and so it continues. Interactive art highlights and involves the audience and environment around it, bring them closer and deeper into the work. Sculptures, websites, installations, computers and some performances can all breach over into this field. Rather than be static and inanimate, interactive art presents a new way to be involved with a creative outlet of another.
Whilst there are many various artists in this field, their goals are individual and personal. Some may use interactive to present information, such as “The Secret Lives of Numbers” [1]. This project shows the popularity of a very large array of numbers based of user interaction. Others like “Skipping Digital” [2] are more of a fun based, ‘play’ piece that each person participates in the manner they choose, whether for entertainment, understanding or just for a giggle. One of these more ‘play’ based artists is Zachary Liberman.
Zachary Liberman describes himself as a “researcher as I feel that my artistic practice is a kind of research” [3] A researcher that’s work tries to develop and express various forms of what it is to be human. As he himself says, his “work takes a playful look at these essential parts of human existence and creates playful, organic myths that aim to shed some light on their nature and origins.” [4] Having displayed his work all over the world, in both interactive installations and performances, Zachary Liberman’s bring a joyfulness to some of the more ‘taken-for-granted’ ideals and interactions in everyday life.
To me, his installation/performance “Drawn” highlights this outlook clearly. “Drawn” is a work that takes physically drawn images and brings them to life, so to speak. Originally a performance piece exhibiting “painted forms appear to come to life, rising themselves off the page and interacting with the outside world.” [5] The performance was also supported by Pardon Kimura to add an audio level to the piece. Kimura is a sound artist with various albums and musical credits to his name and he brings his experience from various fields into this piece. The performance was toured around Europe and Asia during 2005.
In 2006, “Drawn's” success and audience interest
prompted an installation version was developed. “After every performance, crowds would gather to peer at the table, and often ask to try the software themselves… their delight was immediately evident. [6] Very similar to the performance version, anybody could come up, draw and then experiment. The drawings were collected and displayed across the walls surrounding the installation, “creating an increasingly dense tapestry of ink forms.” [5] Like the performance version it was developed from, Drawn (installation) was displayed in a variety of museums are Europe.But how does Drawn actually work? As the artist draws onto a sheet of paper, a camera mounted above captures the drawn image and sends the data to a computer. This computer stores and transforms the image in its memory and turns the drawings into vector shapes. The artist then manipulates the shapes by various hand motions around them. Pushing, pulling and twisting are all possible. The shapes themselves become almost organic as they bounce and flex at the users ‘touch’. Pardon Kimura’s part comes in to play when an ink stroke is touched. Various sound effects are created in response, and reflect the movement and action of the ink stroke. For example, if a stroke is shaken side to side, the audio might be a swishing sound, tracking the movement of the ink. This also occurs in the installation version where movement from the ink sparks an audio response. This to me adds another dimension and mentally engaging level to the piece as it gives the lifeless ink strokes more life.
I find that Drawn is an excellent example of
Zachary Liberman’s goal to create playful yet exploration artworks. (See [3]) By combing something primordial like drawing with modern day computer graphics and blending them together, Liberman succeeds in creating a successful interactive and engaging piece. I find the childish nature of the piece a better way to draw the audience’s focus, as we are all children at heart. From examples I have witness, the more simple and basic the drawings, often the more enjoyable and endless possible manipulations are possible. I see this piece as more ‘fun’ than mental stimulating, but at the same time, often this is the best way relate to a wider range of people. As Liberman said in response to the use of Drawn used in a workshop for kids, "There was a lot of laughter. "[6] Another piece of Liberman that future develops on the idea of play to stimulate the mind is “Motionscapes”. Designed specifically for children with learning difficulties and special needs “an intuitive and fluid means of self-discovery and expression.” [7] This ideal of letting these children develop their sense of the world and surroundings in a playful manner future reflects Liberman’s goal to highlight human existence in various forms.
“Motionscapes” use a fairly basic hardware set-up
in its approach. A simple camera is placed in front the user, and using a projector for image display. As images are projected onto the screen, the users move in front of the camera. The camera takes these motions, computes them and then causes the projected image to respond to the motion. This allows children just simple movements to thoroughly engage with the projection. One thing Liberman has done by focusing on motion rather than the physical being, if the child has a carer, they can sit there being still and let the child engage on their own. This helps individualise the Childs exploration of the piece. The piece has various ‘modes’ to create very different types of interactive and display. These modes are twirl, fluid, loops, bounce and stripes. Each mode presents a new way for the child to get involved, with their movements creating a variety of effects on the screen. Twirl involves a ball rotating around a centre point. The more the child moves, the bigger the ball gets. It also has an audio file where as the size increases, so does the pitch. Fluid is plasma like image of abstract colours and fluid forms. Movement creates new particles in the image. Movement also determines the direction of the fluid, with larger movements creating more of a ‘push’. Once again, audio is accompanied based on particle position and movement. Loops uses multiples of a single image. Movement causes the loops to start in a flowing order from top right to bottom left. Sound is again based of motion. Stripes uses movement to create coloured bands. Different ways of moving affect the colour of the bands. Sound is generated from the colour and position of the bands. Bounce is a collection of balls on the screen. Movement triggers the balls to move and react to the Childs gestures. They collide with the screen walls and each other. Sound is based of position and speed, including collisions.
When you compare Drawn and Motionscapes, you can clearly see similarities and what must ultimately be Zachary Liberman’s ‘style’. With both pieces there is a child like essence and playfulness. Simple movements create an action on the screen that a user can react and cause to react. There is no political stance or message, no attempt to force a user to think a certain way. Its an opportunity for a users self fulfilment, what they see and do is a reflection unto themselves. Liberman gives us a chance to be ourselves and change and manipulate objects and worlds we normally do not have access to.
The comparisons between informative interactive art and interactivity for the sake of the users enjoyment is a blurred line. One may argue that information presented in an interactive format is not ‘art’, just a prettier way to do it. At the same time, is an interactive art piece designed for fun and enjoyment anything more than a glorified technological toy? Each individual has their own stance, mine leans more to the enjoyment of toys, such as Zachary Liberman’s work. They do however present a user the ability to create their own information from the work, information only bound by their creativity. You could even say this information, in total could provide more information than a piece specifically designed to give you a set piece of data. Informative interactivity has its place however. It provides you with a thoroughly more engaging way of learning and exploring a particular field of data. It can also preset opportunities to look at the data and sort through it in a way that you previously had not thought of.
In conclusion there is a fine line between the set goals of informing with interactivity and providing a medium and creative outlet for a person via an interactive artwork, something I don’t feel justified to complete decide on. I do however feel that Zachary Liberman's work is an excellent example of a way an artist can present a variety of people a simple way to interact with totally individual and varying results and response, all in a fun and play focused way.
References:
[1] (2002: Golan Levin, Jonathan Feinberg, Shelly Wynecoop and Martin Wattenberg – The Secret Lives of Numbers - URL)
[2] (2007,ENESS – Skipping Digital – Melbournes QV Square - URL)
[3] (July 26, 2006: We Make Money Not Art - Zach Lieberman's talk at Futuresonic By Regine - URL)
[4] (June, 2006: Herraiz Soto & Co - Zachary Lieberman: pintar la voz – Interview by San Cristóbal - URL)
[5] (Zachary Libermans Website – Drawn - URL)
[6] (Zachary Libermans Website – Drawn Installation - URL)
[7] (Zachary Libermans Website – Motionscapes - URL)
