The Sun Drops Its Torch; Eros INterACTive; Anarchy Partycam

Fig. 2. Jeff Gates, Dri'tleway Leading to Nowhere, a photograph from the World Wide Web site In Our Path, 1995. This site was based on a 12-year photography project that documented the building of the Century Freeway in Los Angeles. bitions of this photographic series at two sites near the freeway. Exhibition viewers were asked to fill out an on-line questionnaire that asked how the building of the freeway affected their lives and their communities. Participants could view on-line other people's responses at the other site as well. This experiment was of marginal success . Most people were not prepared to participate, nor were they able to envision actually adding something to what they saw on the walls. I began to rethink the nature of art in this culture, the purpose of "real" exhibitions and the relationship between technology and its social consequences. I continue to investigate these issues. As director ofArtists for a Better Image (ArtFBl), a non-profit organization I founded to study stereotypes of artists in the media, I find the Internet allows me another venue for audience and dialog. When ArtFBIopened its spot in cyberspace (http://www.tmn.com/ Community/jgates/artfbLhtml), it generated over 10,000 "hits" (user visits) within its first 3 months of operation! That is a lot of coverage for a small organization or for an individual. The web site is maintaining an average of 5,000 hits/month. The information revolution is more than just the Internet and its residual hyperbole. It is a cultural shift from political and social systems that control the flow and content of information to one that offers individuals direct involvement in the development of the social structure. It also presents some intriguing opportunities. However, there are forces developing on the Internet that would like to substitute one form of control for another. Artists need to be involved in the development of this medium. Its nature offers the potential for content providers and interpreters to reach large or very specific audiences. The pace and scope of these changes often seem daunting and infuriating, especially for those with no prior experience with the hardware of these new systems. However, the chance to reposition ourselves from the stereotypical fringe to a more central and valued position is worth investigating. THE SUNDROPS ITS TORCH; EROS INTERAC1lVE; ANARCHY PAR1YCAM JoAnn Gillerman, 950 6Ist Street, Oakland , CA 94608, U.SA E-mail: . My works are environments meant to fully envelope a viewer/ participant in an electronic space and time. To achieve this totality, I address aspects of interactivity, sensitivity to spatial arrangement , sculptural elements and socialization of audiences. Though context , presentation and content have varied (including narrative and nonnarrative aspects), exploration of creative new ways to engage in an interactive multimedia environment has remained my constant interest. Current works concentrate on communication and cooperation through interactive installations that use imagery and concepts applicable to varying peoples, cultures and the Earth. Sometimes the content deals with private issues in a public context, and other times a public issue in a private space. I design installations for cooperative multicultural group interaction (i.e. simultaneous use by several participants), as well as individual experiences. Through seductive interfaces that allow viewers/participants ' personal voices to become part of real-time interaction, these pieces question the limited or open parameters of interactivity. I believe that all interactive works respond to some pre-determined parameters, so it is the responsibility and concern of the individual artist to decide what and how much open-ended interaction is desirable or appropriate to the work. Many of my current works try to give a significant portion of this open-ended interaction to its participants. Three recent works include The Sun Drops Its Torch, EROS INterACTive, and AnArchy Partycam. All three deal with issues of open-ended interactions using various computer platforms and unusual audience/media interfaces. As the Sun walks the bridge between summer and winter solstices, sometimes he simply drops his torch and thus an eclipseoccurs. -Bella Coola Indians of Northwest Canada The Sun Drops Its Torch (©1995) is an interactive environment and series of electronic media works that I produced in collaboration with Rob...