Very Nervous System 

When approaching the reading, I first took the liberty of writing down the artworks and artists listed, before reading the article.  Once I had absorbed the information on Interactive Art, I went back and started to look at the examples that had been listed.  I was very intrigued with visually interactive pieces such as Handsight by Agnes Hegedus and Perry Hoberman’s Bar Code Hotel.  Both of these employed a screen to show a virtual world to the viewer, and the virtual world was controlled by physical inputs from the participant.  The piece that most embodied the interactive art for me, was Very Nervous System, by David Rokeby.

Very Nervous System (1982-1991) by David Rokeby from David Rokeby on Vimeo.

In this video you can see how the ‘viewers’ movements are directly transferred into sounds.  Sounds that are actually very appealing to listen to.  Sounds that would not even exist, without any user interaction.  The Mona Lisa does not turn to a blank canvas if there is no one in the Louvre, nor does it change its form for each person that views it.  The beauty of this interactive piece is that it is something different to each person that interacts with it.  It bases its sounds off of the movements of the user, and each person moves differently.  Causing a new distinct piece of artwork for every person who has the chance to interact with it.