If we translate today a well-known saying of William Shakespeare «All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players», it would look approximately so – life is a virtual space, and we all are its recipientsthat exist in the interactive field with the instant feedback and in the new cyber culture, everyone being a director of his own.
The changes in information environment arisen as a result of technological explosion really appeared revolutionary, and from year to year all of us feel influence of new information technologies in all the spheres of human life, including culture and art. Beneath our very eyes the habitual traditional forms of art vary, and completely new emerge.
In the period of transition from industrial society to the postindustrial one the rules of a traditional aesthetics began to be perceived by many as out-of-date, not conforming to current creative practice. The introduction of new information technologies into the life, on the one hand, has aggravated the crisis of traditional culture, has led to a blurring of boundaries between aesthetic and unaesthetic, moral and immoral, professional and unprofessional, and on the other hand, has brought to life completely new phenomena, intensified complicity of the consumer culture receiving from the Internet and multimedia programs cognitive and aesthetic information. Among these phenomena it is necessary to distinguish the so-called «interactive art».
Adepts of the «interactive art» and modern information technologies tend to perceive the innovative transformation of multimedia as some new cyber culture, able to produce the absolutely new forms of art, where the infinite numbers of recipients are able to participate equally in the creation of works of art.
That language, that system of definitions and concepts, which will arise with the development of interactive art, and which it is hard to identify today, in their opinion, should create new system and new semiotic structure, new sign determination. Replacement of the final result of the process, that is the product itself, its infinite duplication with uncontrollable changes, allow the author to determine the role of an observer, who only generates the initial stage of this process.
Proponents of the new art based on the trends of the philosophy of deconstruction that formed the basic philosophical and methodological foundation for interactive art, in particular on the research of Jacques Derrida.
In his work «Interactivity and communication problems in the context of the philosophy of deconstruction» a well-known Polish theorist Ryszard Kluszczynski writes: «Derrida's deconstruction theory can be regarded as a methodological matrix that allows us to approach the consideration of cyber culture and interactivity with the position, which provides disclosure of the basic properties of the subject matter… The structure of the text, its texture becomes more important meaning and interpretation itself becomes infinite, becoming a kind of game, free from the usual forms, and constructs its own meaning, turning in a creative process that constructs new realities and new values. Happenings and performances, armed with digital multimedia capabilities, as no other form of exposure perfectly fit into this paradigm and at this stage are the most creative» [1].
In varying degrees, this point of view is shared by many adherents of the so-called «interactive art», claiming that it is constantly evolving in an infinite process and the unusual and unpredictable results (if ever are reached, chickpeas) can be called a work or an act of art.
Supporters of the less enthusiastic perception of the new cyber culture, who sequentially trace artifactsof the world culture, believe that nothing new has happened in the art, except the emergence of a giant public theatre and ability to communicate on a different level and with different quality. Will the interactivity really combine with the word «art»?
The emergence of the unprecedented communicative interaction, using the full range of multimedia discoveries, from the audiovisual ones to the creation of 3D-space changing at our discretion, probably, will create in the near future the cyber culture different from all that preceded (so far it is the presentation and the set of sensory organs affecting a creative artist that only changes). First of all, this attraction of recipients (observers) in any quantity, given the multimedia capabilities of the Internet and television, as well as any other communication systems as participants in a creative product in all its shapes and forms within the boundaries defined by the author.
There are many ways to create an illusion of full participation of the users in a creative process or even the sensation of their complete independence, bring them to the desired planned results simulating the active participation of the user in the creative process. But in this case we speak about the real participation of the user in the creation of a sort of artistic product.
Incidentally, the question arises: - what kinds of arts will occupy the predominant place in the infinite space of the network and numerous interactive media? Whether there will be place for traditional kinds of art or its other forms are only able to fill the space of the emerging cyber culture?
Some artists admit the division of responsibility in the creation of works using the interactive zone with the recipients and recognize the independence of their subsequent existence. But majority of the authors are skeptical about such experiments, in practice having convinced the huge gap between the creator and audience, the recipient in all aspects of creative interaction.
So, whether the interactive creativity is an art?
There are a number of different definitions of art, but majority of the researchers converge on that it is a form of sensual knowledge of the world, concentration of creative forces and the material embodiment of the human soul.A work of art assumes the presence of an «image», vision of the world and man getting passed through the consciousness of the artist, his fantasy, imagination and aesthetic sense.
When the «interactive art» is in question the usual criteria applied in assessing the work of art become blurred and uncertain, as the interactivity assumes interaction of the founder with the recipient / user and participation of the user or users in the creation of a final product, as well as the opportunity of infinite modification of material offered by an artist. Who and how can estimate what occurs in this virtual environment? Indeed the act of art can be only assessed by people outside the process, and not by the participants of the creative process.
Moreover, any artist knows from his own experience, that no matter how exciting and creative is the process itself, the result of this process is never known. One of paradoxes of creativity consists in it.
The fact that interactive relationships of the proposed version of the works with the user bring creativity to all participants, no doubt. You can also assume that the process of such interaction or its result can contain elements of art. But it is unlikely that on this basis any creativity including an element of interactivity should be considered as an art.
Immediately many questions rise. How in this case we can determine the line between art and blundering, between professional and amateur creativity, between masscult and high art? Indeed any Internet user can take part in the creation of interactive works. Not to mention how it is possible, how to replace the intimate process of knowledge and self-expression with some kind of collective creativity, and how, having launched an initial image into the global virtual space to receive a product of high art as a result?
To designate the interactive art as distinct from the traditional one (other art) and to give it absolutely other estimation criteria is dangerous and pernicious for the art. Genuine art either exists or not. It may be any, either genius or not, but the mechanism of its appearance is the same, and it is never mass-collective.Performances, whether digital or not, as well as installations, can not be named as art, this is not even a subculture, this is a kind of «sub art».
There is no dispute that interactive creative direction in art has great prospects. Already today it is represented by various games, shows, any possible communicative cybernetic interrelations. The facts of collective creativity already exist in the Internet. But will an act of art happen as a result of equality and mass? It is not a mere coincidence that the happening, being contact and provocative with respect to recipients, has evolved into the performance that does not presume anyone's participation in the action.
Of course, it is impossible to predict influence of the intellectual environment on the viewer through burgeoning technological content. Just as it is impossible to predict what shape under these conditions will take the creative process itself and whether it will ever exist or just become a destiny of individual intellectuals who create their novels using typewriters, put the plays on the domestic stage, and shoot the movies in the old manner on film. The very fact of the emergence of digital performance as a synthesis of avant-garde art and media is disturbing, if the performance has appeared and exists as an activity whose goal is the destruction of art from inside?
In his article «Modern telecommunications art: formation of a new paradigm of creative work» Dubina says that in the telecommunications art, food, creative activities are not results, but documents fixing the creative process of telecommunication dialogue. At the same time the emphasis dramatically shifts from the object-subject relationship to the subject-subject interaction. As a result, not only an art object dematerializes, but also the conception of the subject of creativity radically changes. 'In the interactive art, - J. Dubina writes, - there is no product but there is a system of creation and production of culture in real time, where creative streams intersect and where is no external spectator, as he is immediately got involved in the creative community.In the new paradigm, the notion of the author is replaced by the notion of the authorship of a common concern of so-called «artists» and so-called «recipients». New communication technologies help to solve this problem and increase creative cooperation and collaboration». [2]
We agree with L. Manovich who states that the network is the acting force of modernization, as well as a perfect metaphor for it. «The so-called draft» network of art»,he believes,is simply a manifestation of social, linguistic and psychological networks established or at least made visible through these projects, people outside the art space, a space where the modern city pays for entry into the global economy by disneefitsirovaniem themselves, where everyone pays a certain price: changing personal touch to the virtual contact (telephone, fax, Internet), changing the close groups to the virtual community, which often resembles train stations, where someone always comes and goes ...» [3]
As for interactivity itself, i.e., the interaction of a user with a piece of art, in fact every product of art, beginning from cave art is interactive to a certain extent, as soon as it becomes the property of society at large. Impact on the masses and their evaluation of any work is an act of interactive participation, as the perception of an individual or points of view of a group of people is a direct participation in the result that is even more definite and definitive.
The first attempts to intensify the attention of viewers, readers and listeners and to bring them to co-creation have been made before the advent of the Internet and multimedia programs. In the works of A. Miller, William Faulkner, M. Frisch, A. Christoph, M. Pavich one can find the multivariate development of the plot, nonlinear narration, the game concept.
«Hyperliterature shows us how a novel can develop like the consciousness, in several directions. Hyperliterature makes an interactive novel - M. Pavic writes in this context. - I tried to change the usual way of reading, increasing the role and responsibility of the reader in the process of creating the novel (do not forget that in the world there are much more of talented readers than talented writers and literary critics). I left them, the readers, to decide the main points of the novel and the development of the plot: where the novel begins, and where it ends, even the decision about the fate of the protagonists. I've long ago come to the understanding that the arts are «reversible» and «irreversible».There are art forms that allow the viewer to approach from different angles, change the viewpoint and perspective as to want the most viewers. These are architecture, sculpture and painting, the representatives of reversible art. I always wanted to make the literature, irreversible art, to become a reversible one. Therefore, my books have no beginning and no end in the classic sense of the word» [4]
In the theater also, any director’s reading of the play at the production is an interaction, as well as the embodiment of the role by the actor. Not to mention the different ways to attract spectators to participate in the presentation.
The similar phenomena are observed in the musical culture as well. Thus, attempts to improve the piano led to the methods of writing music with the rough scales proposed by a composer, images instead of notes in the form of diagrams, this allows the player to participate in the creative process on his own discretion within the framework of given characters and thus navigate himself.
One can present a number of similar examples of interactive participation in all spheres of art. The main point is that this participation is limited by the creator within the framework that does not change or distort the idea of the author and his intention.
«It makes little sense to challenge a provision stating that all art today is to some extent interactive, - says Roy Ascot - whether static or dynamic, a painting system in cyberspace. In any case, an artistic impression and maintenance work is a product of interaction between the observer and the object of observation, and not simply one-way transmission of content» [5]
Anyway in our opinion, it is too early to call as the art those, of course, interesting art works that have appeared in the global Network. Although the optimism is inspired by the fact that the addressing to the artistic activity in the online space largely doesn’t aim to use market mechanisms in the implementation of their creativity, the material aspect doesn’t dominate over all that is the most important in the creation of works of art and guarantees their quality.
Now, when there is a still living process of forming new relationships, problems and categories of contemporary art, one can only say with certaintythat this art is another layer of consciousness of an artist, a different attitude to the subject and object of artistic space. And we do agree with Marshall Mcluhan, unsurpassed foreman of aphorisms: «Technology – is not simply inventions which people use, it is the means by which people are created anew. Future is the address of our stay» [6]
Today we call as interactive any form of interactive multimedia works in which the recipient or an unspecified number of users is able to actively participate in the process of creating and modifying at their discretion of the process itself, as well as to create the final version of the product.
A significant and important condition is:any action, any direction or way of participation of users are premeditated and created by the director, author, with the number of options and ways of creation means of creation that should be followed by the user. This point and navigation, and various symbols, signs, points, all that the author deems as necessary in order to preserve at all its multivariability his own authorship. The process of creation is certainly a creative act, but by no means can it be called as art. Only the final result can be evaluated as a work of real art. It is an axiom, no matter, whether it is created with the assistance of the latest computer technology or not, and whether the recipients participate in this process or not.
Naturally, the larger is the range of actions for the recipients created by the author, the greater is the number of options it provides to them, the larger is the feeling of complete freedom, the freedom to choose, and the number of ways to make their choice for the users participating in the process.
There is a completely new profession, the director of multimedia that requires the new way of thinking, knowledge of all types of art, the other level of aesthetics and taste. Other requirements are now imposed on the user who is involved in the creation of the final product or in the process of creation.
And if among the users there are people who will not only reveal the desire, but also show the potential creativity and talent to realize original creative ideas, it would be quite possible that we will get samples of what can be really called «interactive art».
--------------------------------------- -------
1. Ryszard Kluszczynski«Interactivity and the Problem of Communication in the Context of the Philosophy of Deconstruction» // NewMediaLogia. - M.: ЦСИС, 1996. - With. 54-56:
2. А. Дубина «Современное телекоммуникационное искусство: становление новой креативной парадигмы»Новости АГУ. 1999
2. «Лучший полнометражный телевизионный фильм» 2. "BEST FULL LENGTH TV FILM" LIST
# 2-23 Студия «Ростфильм»
«ДТП»
Автор сценария Е. Ростовский
Режиссер Е. Ростовский
Оператор Э. Корневец
Композитор Р. Рязанцев
Продюсер Е. Ростовский
2005 год
80 мин
DVD
Фильм повествует о трагической судьбе молодой и талантливой девушки: художнице, поэтессе, спортсменке. О ее непростой любви к человеку в два раза старше её. В картине художественно реконструированы события, произошедшие до момента страшной автомобильной аварии, в которую она попадает. Вся её последующая жизнь превращается в героическую борьбу за возврат к прежнему физическому и духовному состоянию, и она преодолевает недуг ценой невероятных усилий, несмотря на пессимистические прогнозы врачей. Нелегкие испытания попадают и на долю её друга. Их отношения проходят проверку на прочность
