Reading Response: Making Interactive Art

I really enjoyed reading this article, and throughout reading it my mind could not help but think about this in the context of other arts forms, like paintings, or especially music, my favorite art form that is such a huge part of my life. Music is often something that promotes self-reflection for me and I try to find meaning in whatever I listen to. I constantly wonder about why musicians sometimes decide not to comment on the meanings of their songs, and how my interpretation of the song might change if I know the artist’s intended meaning for the music they created, rather than just my own interpretations of the music.

Linking this back to interactive art, I have a hard time commenting on this, mostly because I think of interactive art as something that is playful, rather than something that conveys a deeper meaning.  Because of this, I am not really sure what to think about this text. For instance, websites and video games are examples of interactive art, and I think that these can and do convey a deeper meaning, but this must be spelled out by the creators of the product. As for interactive art installations I have seen, I think it would be beneficial for the people interacting with the project to not know the true intentions of the artists so that they are able to freely interact with the product (if the artist wanted genuine interactions).