People have always loved watching screens. The video screen has surged where people love this window onto a whole new world of possibility and opportunity. We are increasingly feeling this attraction with screens. Over the past decade we have seen the emergence of more and more screens with serious multimedia capabilities. Today, we use screens for informing, communicating, entertaining, and connecting. The following are ten of my favorite interactive video art projects that I believe make strong emotional connections with people using screens.

1. Potent Objects
Potent Objects playfully examines the way we ascribe emotion to inanimate technologies. The work parallels current research in ‘affective computing,’ in which the capability of sensing and conveying emotion is built into computing devices. (Work by Camille Utterback)

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Presented at the ITP Winter Show 2009 and NIME 2009, Rusty Business is a video sequencer that produces electronically controlled cartoon antics using large inflatable hammers.

A database of slapstick comedy gags are executed when inflatable hammers hit push button switches. The interactions performed by the users handling of the hammer produces a unique visual and auditory experience onto the projected montage displays. Every hit from the inflatable hammer triggers a different, unexpected and shocking reaction from the character, conveying his struggles with work, sickness and modern day insanities.

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The Joy of Smoking is a collection of humorous video clips about a smoker who will go to almost any lengths for a nicotine hit. This is the first prototype of my Headsprung video sculpture series that I am currently developing.

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My direction for my first assignment in my Interactive Screens & Cinematic Objects class was to identify the different parts of my face in a non-literal sense. I wanted to break apart my face into a multitude of sections and highlight those areas that would typically go unnoticed in a realistic sketch. In a geographical map, it is it’s structure and design that orients the viewer’s understanding of a specific territory. Unpopular and small populated areas in geographic maps are invisible to the viewer. In this personal map, I wanted to highlight those areas on my face that I never draw my attention to.

Marie Chouinard’s Cantique No. 3 is an interactive event that increases the responsibility of the user as both the controller and artist of the presentation. The juxtaposition of outrageous comedy, classic facial expressions and even techno music make this eccentric work so intriguing to me.