The Role of Eye Contact and Spectatorship in Interactive Installations

Symposium:

• ISEA2016: 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA2016:  

• Interactivity, Modes of

• The Role of Eye Contact and Spectatorship in Interactive Installations

• Cheung Ka Wa

Venue(s):

• Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR China

• Abstract (short paper)

  Eye contact is an innate and powerful way to communicate intimacy. This paper investigates the effect of eye contact in interactive installations focusing on the relationship between artworks and spectators. In a traditional exhibition setting, spectators take the initiative to connect with the artworks by taking actions such as watching or listening; specifically, the artwork becomes activated as a result of the spectators’ engagement with it. Therefore, the aesthetic experience of spectators and the spectatorship depends on the ways spectators see that artwork. But the gaze operates in a different fashion in interactive installations where the reactivity activates independently of the spectator. This paper proposes that interactive installations are activated in a different way that has implications for agency, mechanic systems.

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Category:

• Paper
• Short Paper