Myron Krueger, "Responsive Environments"
Kenny Kyung Mi Kim
"The responsive environment has been presented as the basic for a new aesthetic medium based on real-time interaction between men and machines. In the long range it augurs a new realm of human experience, artificial realities which seek not to stimulate the physical world but to define arbitrary, abstract and otherwise impossible relationships between action and result."
Krueger's contribution to interactive computer art was the notion of the artist as a "composer" of intelligent, real-time computer -mediated spaces, or "responsive environments". His projects were <Glowflow>, <Metaplay>,<Psychic Space>,<MAZE- a composed Environment>,and<Videoplace>. He got a lot of thoughs through Glowflow : 1.Interactive art is potentially a richly composable medium quite distinct from the concerns of sculpture, graphic art or music. 2.In order to respond intelligently the computer should perceive as much as possible about the participant's behavior. 3. In order to focus on the relationships between the environment and the participants, rather than among participants, only a small number of people should be involved at a time. 4. The participants should be aware of how the environment is responding to them. 5. The choice of sound and visual response systems should be dictated by their ability to convey a wide variety of conceptual relationships. 6.The visual responses should not be judged as art nor the sounds as music. The only aesthetic concern is quality of the interaction.
Aaron
I find Krueger’s comments about "the quality of the interaction" being the most important thing in new media very interesting. His comments about Interactive arts being a medium of reactions are also interesting. I am very interested in materiality in art forms, and have been puzzling what the core materials of multimedia are. (What is the core principal that allows multimedia to exist and different media to come together? I think that reactions are a good place to start. It dovetails well with post-linear narrative lab in a way. How can changes come across over time by drawing users into different types of reactions? My only issue with the Krueger article is the constant awareness of the user of the interaction. Many of the projects involve showing a piece of momentary spectacle that really separates people, rather than empower them to interact. I am thinking in particular of video place. Why not just have a bunch of people to into a room? Why the construct of an artificial medium between people who are already so close together?
Won Sup Shin - Myron Krueger, “Responsive Environments”
I found that Myron's concept on ‘environment’ has influenced on other artists. I checked a website introducing multimedia artists and their projects including Krueger (http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/timeline/Krueger.html), and his work was in the year of 1970. But his basic notion of environments as a virtual space enabling interactions between human and machine has come along while being submerged on the following artists' work.
Among his projects explained in this article, “Maze-A Composed Environment” interests me most. This project looks like a game, but I think that is just the way of it proceeds along with participants. To me, the essence of this project is an alienation or marginalization. I imagined how this work operated just by reading this article while I actually watched the “videoplace” on the web. Yet, “Maze” came to me more vividly.