Act/React

I can’t help but go Hollywood right away and mention Robin William’s little speech in Good Will Hunting where his character tells Will he may know what the Sistine Chapel looks like, but can’t go beyond that and so on because he never experienced it. I thought of that quote as I was going through the exhibit at the Art Museum because I had read and heard so much beforehand that I thought I knew the exhibit already, I didn’t have to go see it to write the paper, why waste my time? But I was wrong. Because after visiting, I looked at the pieces differently, I could describe them differently than if I hadn’t visited, it made me appreciate them more. I believe all art is interactive; a sculpture could evoke an emotion or memory, an abstract painting could be like looking at the clouds when you were a kid, it doesn’t necessarily have an obvious picture, but you do see something in it. But this exhibit went beyond that with me. It was like a game, an interactive game using all the senses, or at least most of them.

In John McKinnon’s lecture he mentioned quite a few interactive installations like the Infinity Room, which now after visiting Act/React I guess I shouldn’t assume, but doesn’t seem that interactive, but rather a piece you can be in, but I don’t believe you can manipulate it. It may affect you emotionally, but there isn’t much you can do physically to it or it to you. And as for the Lumiere Brothers’ famous ‘Arrival of a Train,’ it definitely affected audiences (supposedly) in a way that they actually thought a train was coming and ran out of the theatre, but they can go back in, and the theatre and the film are exactly the same, just looked at differently. I mention these to, again, argue that the Act/React exhibit is a new kind of interactive. The viewer can become an artist through these pieces.

The first piece I enjoyed was Healing #1 by Brian Knep. I was able to experience it alone and with a group of people. While alone it was like a puzzle, I figured out it followed my movement, my shadow rather than where I stepped, which intrigued me. I then tested it, if you will, and spun around with my purse low to the ground, the cells disappeared, I shuffled, which made the ‘wound’ wider, I then tried, what I’m sure everyone tried, to delete all the cells. At this point a group of grade school students came by and watched me. Not even a second later one of the kids said, ‘Let’s help her get rid of it!’ I know it was obvious what I was doing, but it just amazed me that these kids knew exactly what I was doing and wanted to ‘help.’ Of course they’re kids though and quickly got distracted themselves, making different shapes, having their own objectives.

What was, surprisingly, my favorite piece was Janet Cardiff’s, To Touch. Beforehand I thought it was just a table that you touched and it evoked different sounds to come out of the speakers. And essentially it was, but it was also a lot of fun. I was lucky enough to be in the dark room by myself and right away felt like a conductor or Bugs Bunny in ‘Baton Bunny.’ I’d touch slowly and softly at different areas of the table, one voice or noise going off at a time, maybe two overlapping quietly. Then I’d add a few more noises, let them run, it then gets quiet, maybe touch another area of the table, see what plays, add another, and another, then just run my hands all over the table faster and faster, having each and every speaker play, becoming chaos. At one point one of the security guards came in, and I’m sure I looked like a mad woman practically rubbing my whole body on this table with this wicked smile on my face looking up at him like, ‘Look! Look at what I’m creating!!!’ That definitely brought me back down to reality and I let it become quiet again. Well, after a few more minutes of playing with it.

I still remember visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time and my sister was getting frustrated because I wasn’t ‘feeling’ the art in the abstract area. I then saw a piece from Joan Mitchell (still one of my favorite pieces), that was just globs of paint creating a 3D look with shadows and shapes. I had my face about two inches from the painting, my sister comes up to me, and I say, ‘I just want to feel it!’ and she looks at me with the most astonished look, and I reply, ‘Well, I’m not really going to, an alarm might go off!’ and she laughed thinking I metaphorically wanted to feel it. I mention that because I believe you can’t just ‘feel’ or appreciate art just by looking. Sure, I can see the Venus Di Milo in an art book, but how big is she? what does her ass look like (ps. If you Google ‘Venus Di Milo, ass,’ one example does show up)? I wouldn’t know unless I go and see her, walk around, smell her even. I appreciate things more when I am able to interact. And these pieces at the Act/React show are the epitome of interaction. You manipulate the pieces, and essentially, create your own art within it, just like I did with my little ‘symphony’ at To Touch or the tunnels and new cells I left behind at Healing #1. John McKinnon gave us a quick rundown of ‘interactive’ art, whether it is a sculpture that moves or a movie that makes crowds run, and although I don’t go against my first argument that all art is interactive, this exhibit was a new level of interactive.