Framework

Having experimented with interactive environments in Processional II, remixing video clips live became the new challenge. In Framework Headspaces continued forward with hand crafted custom MIDI controllers and software.

Interactivity is precedent in Framework. In the environment, pre-recorded audio and video is presented as interchangeable and selectable media, dependent on the responses of the audience. The content of the exhibit varies with each viewers input, and as the audience turns knobs and presses buttons on the MIDI devices, the entire atmosphere begins to be further and further distorted.

Framework, in its various states, has a dynamic interplay between artist and audience where the boundaries between either entity become blurred. The artist sets the stage, develops an interactive framework, and input generates the art. In the installation setting, providing tools for altering a space's setting removes the a subtle, traditional, hierarchy in place in the art setting. The stage is leveled as instead of the artwork relying on a viewer, it needs input to persist.

Before Framework work had always been confined to the more limiting directives and constraints of traditional fine art. The viewer and artist had been separate entities, never truly meeting and resulting in a clear division of identities. Work was presented and received, delivered and accepted. Framework relied on these conventions, having live events altered visually and through sound. Certain boundaries were outlined, with predetermined subject matter, yet the art was allowed to unfold freely, and asked to create a unique experience, as those in the installation mixed their own video and audio. Anyone willing changed the atmosphere within the framework to their own aesthetic.

The elements of Framework have become variables for future interactive projects. The MIDI control systems are becoming more sophisticated, the levels of audience participation more elaborate, and the reliance on traditional exhibition environments less integral. The framework established in this most recent exhibit has opened a new creativity, and continues to push forward through experimentation and ingenuity. For this relationship to exist, where artist and audience are equal contributors to the same body of work, the artist must carefully define a framework. Framework brings the necessity of an audience for art to exist to the forefront, if no one implements the controllers, nothing is produced within the environment. The installation provides a tool to expand the base of those who create and relate to fine art. Video, in these installations, leads viewers into the paintings, and drawings, framing a modern window into less contemporary mediums.