Field Report: Act/React

The Milwaukee Art Museum's exhibit Act/React is technology based art. The artists associating with the Act/React exhibit express their ideas differently than conventional artists do. I consider conventional artist to be sculptors and painters When the word art is muttered from a mouth today. It is no longer just embodies those conventional outlets. Art in 2008 is expressed through the most diverse standards ever. However, the diversity has created many art impersonators. Is a hairstylist an artist? I believe art is a representation of an idea created totally free from influence. It is a new idea, not recycled ones. It is an idea that is not connected to this world yet, but a revelation from another place that is given birth through artistic methods.

Janet Cardiff has a piece of art called To Touch. You enter a dark room in the exhibit where a light shines softly on a barbaric looking table. The table is built with thick pieces of wood. The surface of the table is rough, nicks and cuts break through the tarnished finish. Before I even touched the table; I felt a very intimacy from looking at it, but when I touched the table I felt the moment increase in meaning. When I touched the table sounds started to come from speakers placed around the entire room. A soft voice of a woman sternly expressing her thoughts, "touch my breast," was one. Also, sounds of telephones ringing and squeals of car tires as they scream loudly to a halt. The sounds changed based on the way I interacted with the table. When I placed my hands on it and wiped them across the table, the sounds increased in dark variation and tempo. My presence and interaction brought the artwork to life.

Janet Cardiff decided to express her artistic vision using sound technology, sensory technology, and lighting. It is the technology of her art that allows for spectator interaction to become possible, and it is the interaction the spectator has with the artwork, that in this case completes Cardriff's piece. The technology involved with her piece caused a much different reaction than if she would have used a different medium like, painting or sculpting. I personally feel that because she expressed her idea using technology. It provided me with a dynamic experience that made be feel the both past and present.

In the room next to Cardiff's exhibit was another exhibit by Danial Rozin. He uses technology to create his artwork too. Although, the interaction with his piece is different than Cardriff's. I interacted with Rozin's piece by standing in front of a clear screen. It reflected my image in the technology produced falling snow, and when I moved around my image became blurred. I feel it was when I was standing completely still that I appreciated the piece the most. My experience with the two piece of artwork were very different based upon the way I was suppose to interact with it.