A dialogue with an idiot?

Some interactive computer-based art

Beryl Graham

pp. 217-232

in: Finn Bostad, Craig Brandist, Lars Evensen, Faber (eds), Bakhtinian perspectives on language and culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Abstract

Once wrestled out of the grasp of the military, "new media"¹ such as the Internet, VR, remote sensing and digital displays were soon in the inquisitive hands of artists. Since then, artists have been pragmatically exploring the aesthetic and subversive potential of interactive video, CD-ROMs, telematics and so on, whilst museum collections become "virtual", and commerce strives to sell us more "hands-on fun". Advertisers and critics alike have indulged in much hyperbole concerning the "democratic" potential for interactive computer-based art to escape monologic closure, and to offer a literal "dialogue" between the artwork and the audience.