Week 5 Readings

I noticed that these readings seemed to focus a great deal on the reversal of viewer and artist;
"activation of the spectator"
"viewer and artist are interchangeable"
etc.

I think it is interesting to now know when this idea of interactive art was first conceptualized. However, I feel that many of the works mentioned did not exactly portray this idea to its full capacity. Carollee Shneeman was given credit for using film as her primary medium, rather than a recording device of her performances. I can understand her work being an example of the statement "Direct use of body is a vital aspect of expanded cinema," but I must disagree with the statement that she didnt use film as merely a recording device.

I just feel that the concept of "kinetic theater" was a little over credited. It's neat and cool, sure. but do I think that its such an incredible break through in the expanded cinema to be considered a movement from "painterly" films to "kinetic" films. No. not really. That was just my interpretation of the reading though.

In short I just think that the idea of viewer and artist being interchangeable had not fully reached its potential at this time and should not be stated as such. I do feel these artists were the beginning inspiration of that though.