“On Display: Interactive Art as Ergodic Text”

06 November 2017 Comments Off on “On Display: Interactive Art as Ergodic Text”

This month, all who are interested have the opportunity to experience a unique exhibition of interactive art on campus. Organized by the Program in Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas, the Department of Communication and Design and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, “On Display: Interactive Art as Ergodic Text” is open every weekday through November 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the FADA Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition is at once a celebration of interactive art that requires the viewer to play an integral role in the piece itself, and a unique opportunity to experience such art through the framework of the ergodic. Introduced into textual studies by Espen J. Aarseth in 1997, the term “ergodic” derives from the Greek words “ergon” and “hodos” – “work” and “path” – and describes texts that are deliberately structured to demand a “nontrivial,” “extranoematic” effort in order to “traverse” them. This effort involves interaction in various forms, compelling readers to shape their own unique engagement with the text.

All are invited to visit the exhibition and experience the following pieces: “Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-1986” (Norman M. Klein & Marsha Kinder, 2003); “Ceremony of Innocence” (Peter Gabriel, 1997); “Filmtext” (Mark Amerika, 2002/2011); “A is for Apple” (David Clark, 2002); and “Immemory” (Chris Marker, 1997/2008).