The exercise where we had four clips that could be arranged in a non-linear way and still tell a narrative showed that there is not just one meaning, and that the meaning may continue to change depending on the order of the clips. Something that is probably difficult for many traditional artists, is that they share the control and outcome of their work with their audience.

Michael Rush, in his book New Media in Art writes, “The value of interactivity as art is in its exploration of multiple points of view, without fear of the challenges of non-linearity or unusual modes of perception. To this extent, the new medium, if we may call it that, extends both modernist and post-modernist agendas of radically transforming how art is made and experienced” (Rush 213). Art becomes about the experience. Eduardo Kac writes, in his article Telepresence Art, “At its best, interactive art implies less stress on form (composition) and more emphasis on behavior (choice, action), negotiation of meanings, and the foregrounding of the public who, now transformed into “participants,” acquire a prominent and active role in shaping their own field of experiences” (Kac 1). Again, the experience. Kac goes on to talk about reciprocity in new media as opposed to mass media which comes from one source, shifting the power balance.

In class, Alex said that new media is the birth of a new language and culture. Together we are all learning a new system. New media environments are immersive and are made of many different environments. It seems that through non-linear narratives and participation, artists are providing a platform for us (the audience, the participants) to discover new possibilities in the way we think about the construction of our world. We all become a part of the process where the outcome is unknown. There is uneasiness in this, in not having a clear end product.