Is Lynn Hershman's idea of interactive media still alive today?

Lynn Hershman pioneered the concept of interactive media. Digital technology such as DVD players, PCs, and home video game consoles allow for more and more types of media to involve the user. Virtual reality is slowly making its way into reality through physical interfaces such as camera's with depth sensors and the nintendo wii's physical control using wireless gyroscopes. As time passes, technology allows artists to embed more choices within their work. Fictional stories once restricted to single paths in books can now have hundreds of alternate storylines in video games depending on the choices made by the user. People can escape into a virtual second life on the internet and use the anonymity provided on the internet to find new creative methods of escapism.
Society as a whole has latched onto this idea of interactive media. We are past the turning point of digital technology integrating into daily life. It is inescapable. At this point the rush is to see how we can integrate this technology more fully with real life in order to mesh the virtual world and the world around us.

How does one unscript politics?

I hold the opinion that the artists power comes from the ability to relate ideas through alternate means. The masses that can view an artistic work can take the satire, images, video, or any other art form and interpret meaning to match their own preconceived notions. This is powerful because most people may have a feeling or an idea but have no focus or momentum to it. The artist then is able to give people a direction and a side to take on issues. The opinion of the artist can be taken or ignored depending on the viewer and is able to be harmless but still effective. The power of the images used in my political campaign ad are able to elicit much more feeling from a viewer than just telling them that the educational system's financing needs reform.
In the end, the viewer can decide whether or not to internalize the views presented by artists. In Randall Packer's presentation on the fake government department, he is able to highlight many issues that have arisen through the delinquency of the current presidential leadership while still allowing the viewer to keep their own ideals and opinions handy. Randall Packer said, "The artist does not work in a vacuum" which highlights the fact that an artistic work of this sort needs context to take full effect, but can stand on its own. Within context the work will influence a view or present an opinion on a specific event or issue, but out of context it can retain its value as art.

idea for dvd project

Revised from the previous idea: I plan to make an interactive parody of fighting video games, using Mortal Kombat as a template. I will make multiple scenes with some filters, canned footage, and slow-mo/freeze frame to create suspense in the fights and add situational humor.

I plan to use reverse, multiple points of view, still photography, slow-mo, etc... to change what may not be normal, but certainly comprehensive to a bystander.

Obama Education Ad

Also available on youtube

Political Ad Prep

For this project I will be focusing on Barack Obama. I plan to focus on the issue of getting out the youth vote with the slogan "Barack Obama, paving the way for tomorrow's leaders, today" or something along those lines. The emphasis is to quantify the idea of change by focusing on the current shift to the next generation and to have the older generation think about their kids.

Reaction to Hirshhorn/YouTube

YouTube has opened the floodgates of information on the internet to include video in the available content. The internet provides an uncensored collection of responses and opinions of real news around the world. Anyone with a camera and an idea can create a video and have it available for millions of viewers to see. This removes the control that the media currently uses to focus our attention on one thing or another and enables users to choose their news. With such a large user base as well, YouTube provides artists with an incredibly large audience. What was once relatively hard to distribute, video art can now be posted and seen by thousands upon thousands of eyes an unlimited number of times. Any artist can get their name out and launch their career and it can all stem from word of mouth. The internet took a traditional grassroots method and amplified it a million-fold. Users like the Numa Numa Guy Gary Brolsma can almost accidentally become pop culture celebrities by tickling the fancy of bored web surfers both young and old.

The Numa Numa Guy- over 9.6 million views

The implications of this newfound media stretch to the realm of politics. Activists and satirists who previously depended on rallies and cafes to get their word out on the street can now have a much louder voice. Groups like jib jab fuse comedy with their message to increase the effectiveness upon the viewer. The ability to host and distribute video web content has exponentially increased the power of the individual.

The Hirshhorn exhibit The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image brought to my attention a number of innovative uses of video art. Tony Oursler uses video art to achieve a moving sculpture which is more real than any painting or sculpture yet eerily artificial at the same time. His work, pictured below, uses video art to evoke a reaction to a unique blended art piece. The innovation is in the delivery. Anyone can show a movie of an eyeball or a man talking. Anyone can carve a face out of granite, but the fusing of these two ideas combined with recorded audio creates a surreal effect that I never even imagined.

Reaction to Dietz Lecture

Steve Dietz spoke in his lecture about unscripting the political process. To me this involves breaking down the façade used by politicians and their organizations. By looking deeper into a politician or political organization’s position on issues, artists attempt to discern the true motives behind the words so beautifully composed by the staff writers. The traditional political process is presented in a neat package to the public, with very specific, yet vague pieces of information. They always tell you just enough to get your attention, but not enough to take away the flexibility of indecision. Artists are able to cut through that veil of secrecy and illustrate what they feel is a truer, if not exaggerated point of view on these political subjects. One example of how this can happen is through the use of irony and sarcasm. An easy source of material for satirists, politics provides points that can easily be blown out of proportion or taken out of context to give an image of ridiculousness. In this case, the Billionaires for Bush go around protesting for Bush to be re-elected. They campaign for this because billionaires saw increasingly large tax cuts during the Bush term. The point of the group is to make the public aware that they are getting what seems to be the short end of the stick and essentially the activists are using reverse psychology to discourage supporters of the GOP. By making a stand on a point that a politician like Bush would purposefully keep quiet, the awareness on that issue is raised and can better affect the outcome of the democratic system America attempts to take advantage of.