Act/React

The Act/React exhibit was the most fun gallery installations I have seen. There is no wonder why it was the most fun because I am an avid player of video games and interactions with video is very appealing whereas still works of art are somewhat boring if you do not have appreciation for the work put into it. This art I feel can be fun for anyone. This exhibit reflects what video games have started to become such as the Nintendo Wii which has more interaction with full body motion than any video game system released to this date. I'll come back to video games later on in this blog. 

The two works of the exhibit I found the most interesting and the most fun to interact with were Scott Snibbe's Boundary Functions and Brain Knep's Healing Pool. Comparing the two pieces, they both relied heavily on quicker human movements.  Both also had a sense of history and record of the participants movements. The contrast of he two pieces and their history is that Boundary Functions, well, had a deeper sense of history. The projected screen was split up in to many different section in which showed the interaction of you as the participant as well as many others who came before you. Healing Pool on the other hand had history until it healed itself. The history is not as extensive as Boundary Functions but could be seen for a few seconds after the movement took place. Healing only showed a path of movement where as Boundary Functions showed a reenactment of the participant's movements. 

One thing I found interesting about both these pieces and Healing #1 especially is that these are seen in almost every large mall now. In the middle of the floor usually in a corner of the mall there is a projector projecting onto a white mat in which kids can interact and play a game such as soccer by moving and interacting with the video on the mat. This and the Act/React exhibit can be considered video games essentially. The exhibit, at least to me, was essentially a playground.