Look ma, no mouse!

March 31, 2005 11:15 PM

Myron Krueger began his pioneering work in interactive art in 1969. He was one of the first to explore the aesthetics of interactivity with his "responsive environments." While preparing a talk that included a reminiscence of Krueger demoing Videoplace in the 80s, I was surprised he'd not yet merited even a stub in the Wikipedia. While that may eventually motivate me to register and start the page, for now, I will just share some links. [more inside, including videos]
posted by KS (2 comments total)

Last year, Videoplace was on display in a gallery in NYC. I was really happy to find this collection of photos and videos of people interacting with Videoplace. ¶ Myron Krueger explains: “Since 1969, I have been trying to raise interactivity to the level of an art form as opposed to making art work that happened to be interactive.” Interview (2002) | Audio interview (1999) ¶ Here is the Krueger entry on a timeline of pioneers at Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality goes along with a book of the same name fomr 2000. The book is a bundle of mostly seminal essays, including an essay by Kreuger. The web site has some really great stuff but is incomplete.

Related: David Rokeby's Very Nervous System (1986-1990). Scroll down for excellent video demonstration. ¶ For a little more than a year Sony has marketed a tiny USB camera called Eyetoy that turns a Playstation into a Videoplace-like experience. Non sales info: Eyetoy: Wikipedia entry, Metacritic reviews. ¶ Wanna make your own cool interactive rooms (or control robots or...) then look at the Art Interface Device. “AID is a microprocessor platform for building electronic installation art. It can also be used as an interface between such artworks and computers. It can enable artworks to respond to people and the physical environment.” The web site contains all the help you need to build it yourself, and users share code and tips in the forums.
posted by KS at 11:18 PM on March 31, 2005

Nice.
posted by Eamon at 8:12 PM on April 1, 2005