Interactive installations and the conception of space - An introduction

Abstract

Today we are living in the midst of an emerging new iconographic paradigm, that of the digital image. On one hand all information media and cultural objects can be transferred and encoded in digital form while on the other hand the relation of spectator with the image is no longer that of contemplation but of interactivity and transformation. These conditions brought into being a new equation between space and image, between image and spectator. In the case of interactive environments and installations a dynamic architectonic space is combined with the kinesis of the viewers' bodies, with the use of new materials and interfaces and three-dimensional screen structures. Human body, architectural space and image fuse together in the course of interactive multimedia events. They are syncronized in a new way, treated as a dynamic field of variables.