Installation, performance and digital art
A work can exist as an event or a set of rules.
Key ideas
The installation organizes the environment, the performance organizes the action in time. Digital work may use code, interactivity, the web, or generative processes. The screen or algorithm itself does not explain the artistic task: consider what it changes in the viewer’s experience.
Looking deeper
Documentation does not always replace presence. For a digital work, program versions, display devices, and storage methods are important. In generative art, distinguish between the author's intention, the rules of the system, and the individual result obtained. Questions of material provenance and viewer participation remain part of the analysis.
Compare the video of the performance and instructions for its execution.
Find the work in the museum's official catalog and start with a description of the visible details.Describe what needs to be preserved so that the work can be shown in twenty years.
Useful terms
- Installation
- A work that organizes elements and environment into a spatial experience. May include sound, light, objects, and viewer movement.
- Performance art
- An artistic practice in which action, body and time are essential. Documentation may differ from the event itself.
- Medium
- A medium or method of artistic expression: such as painting, photography, or video. The meaning of the term depends on the context.
External educational material or museum catalogue. The above review is not a literal translation of the source.