Instalaciónes interactivas

"The interactive store front" by Elle Mc Pershon. New York, Fashion Week, 2007


Interactive Installations are a form of digital art that are above all set in public places. This form of art has emancipated itself from the stable interface of a computer: possible interfaces are house walls, storefronts...or simply the plain air, into a hologram is projected in. The possibilities are unlimited, whereas the most important characteristics of an interactive installation is the ability of its interface to react to physical/human interaction. For that reason, the architect in charge of the interface is at least as important as its software engineer.

For example the screen of the act "Pollock in Action", an interactive installation dedicated to Pollock´s way of painting without touching the canvas, has to react on the different colours, the pencil and the movements of the painter, that won´t touch the screen. A sales campaign of Elle Mc Pershon during the Fashion Week New York in 2007 was an Interactive Storefront (see above) is responding to the body heat. Only if a person walks by, it changes its before black surface and makes an Elle-Mc Pershon model visible.
Interactive Installations can be art in public places - for the reason you can reach a huge public by using an Interactive Installation, it´s being used more and more often for commercial projects.
The possibility to reach a huge public very easily is at the same time mercy and bane: On the one hand, an amazing and refreshing way of creating art and attention, on the other hand one step more to annoy people with information they don´t want. If there is an advertisement in the public place, you can´t choose if you want to see this advertisement or not - and as interactive installations are creating even more attention than normal posters, it´s even more difficult to decide for your self if you want to consume it or not.