Some Further thoughts on Electronic Art…in relation to ISEA/DEAF

At ISEA/DEAF so much focus was placed on 'interaction' that many notions
like content, aesthetics etc… ran secondary to the nature of this
interaction… A lot of work looked at interaction in different ways,
beyond the keyboard and mouse and towards triggering events, sensing
movement, triggering sounds, etc., but much of the time the content in
this work was lacking, all form, no content.

I actually want to defend the Tony Brown piece "Better Living through
Remote Access." For me this was one of the highlights, it was
refreshingly low-tech, who cares how it was produced….this notion of
an electronic art which can only be realized with the properties of the
computer is such a purist concept of electronic art. For me the Tony
Brown piece had real presence and depth in terms of content, something a
lot of work at both ISEA and DEAF lacked.

I think its often the synergy between electronic art and installation
art, or video art, or experimental film, or sound art, which produces
the most interesting and dynamic work. This cross over and cultural
awareness of these other media is vitally important for the development
of electronic art..otherwise electronic art will never really break out
of the ghetto of Electronic Art and into the real art world.