ABSTRACT
The artistic experience—an interaction between persons and objects, in the context of cultural exchange and active engagement with the artwork—has seldom been a subject of sociological study. Even less common are anthropological or pragmatic explorations of what the objects do and what they make those who create and experience them do. At the interface of interactive cinema, video games, and the internet, a growing number of artists seek to reinvent the scenarios and the modes of relation to images. Uploading images and works to the web engenders forms of attachment that are still specific to net art and digital art, but they can no doubt shed light on the broader range of new media paradigms. The computer interface plays a key role in these projects by setting up a dialogue between the artwork, the artist, and an audience that is now expected to actively participate in the creative process.
