Interaction is considered as both a magic word and a catchword but the term hasn`t been classified yet. Rather it can be structured into different genres based on a certain point of view and the so-called interface. Nowadays the current mode of perceiving narrative structure via the presentation of a story calls for new forms of experience because of the active participation on the part of the viewer. Considering hypermedial systems such as the CD-ROM and its inherent navigational structure the popular notion of "interaction!" seems to be rather far-fetched sometimes. Nevertheless subcategories for the creative participation of the viewers have been created which need to be analyzed. Since tension, meaningful editing and identification with the plot play a decisive part in a work`s success you may compare interaction to traditional ways of storytelling such as film. Using several examples, complex forms, metaphors and esthetic methods will be discussed in order to define some of these terms.
Working together with Werkleitz (the regional Media Centre of Sachsen-Anhalt) and the academy for pictorial art in Braunschweig Wand 5 have developed oVid, an internet database for experimental film, video and media art. The function of the database is to promote investigation and communication in this artistic area. As "consultative work" oVid should support curators, scientists and those who are interested to achieve an overview of current and historical productions. The way individual productions, respectively works, artists and institutions (rental, playplaces, archives, art and media academies) are stuctured, enables the oVid user to comprehensively inform himself and partly, through e-mail, engage in direct contact to the artists and institutions. A bibliographic reference to the artworks and artists is planned, in a menu form of film and videosequences. oVid is cooperating with the most important rental companies in the area of experimental films like The New York Filmmakers Coop, Light Cone (Paris), London Filmmakers Coop, Canyon Film (San Francisco) and a large number of video distribution and production companies... In addition to this a close working relationship with other filmfestivals and academies will be sought. The oVid coordinator Marcel Schwierin will present the project via large data projection format.
The network is not only a place but also a medium of the art. As such it seems not only to encourage but also to demand interactivity, participation and cooperation. Mediation and teamwork instead of the authorship of art aristocrats. A polarity in which at their time the surrealists already experimented. It is not by chance that many network projects that offer "art for participation", appear like re-recordings of the surrealistic "Cadavre Exquis. Often the network potential of a non linear, rhizomatic production is not used, just text and/or pictures are connected one after the other, and finally facing the collective creative euphorias one asks itself the question, if framed, coloured pictures (frames) must already be art. On the other hand: how much collectivity may really be supported by (network) art? At any rate the network also offers itself beyond the digital cadaver for artistic cooperation. Just as it is already in intermedia, we also find in the area of the "new media", besides the caracter of a modern universal artist, and the multimedial works of one hand, the artisic collective, the group, which collaborates out of different areas.