Soundscape

Do we really interact with computers, or just input commands?

In "Diary: Audience 1966, A Year From Monday", John Cage compares the evolution of the relationship between artist and audience to the relationship between man and machine. He says that we are an audience for computer art and we need a computer that isn't just labor-saving, but increases the work we are capable of doing. In this he was a visionary, seeing the future path that Personal Computers had yet to show. My argument though is that the computer is still just a tool. At most it is a static medium.
Although programs and tools now allow the expression of multiple forms of art through a digital landscape, they are still reacting back and forth in real time. The artist makes a move, and the computer responds like a chess game, with the dance between them forming the art intended. I think the artist still just inputs their will and the computer reacts. It is not yet to the point like with John Cage's new concept of audience where the artist is truly affected by the reaction of the medium to the building of the performance.