What Gaming can learn from Installation Art

Allan Kaprow created work to be played with not looked at. He wanted to get the audience to interact with the art and become co-creators instead of being just a spectator. Annet Dekker points out that audiences did not want to become part of the art and simply wanted to enjoy looking at it. Also the "The Happenings" did not allow participation freedom but was created to allow participants to be part of it. Some of the pieces had scripts or guidelines which the participants had to follow. This does not allow them to be fully immersed when they are constantly reminded they are performing. It also does not allowed them to shape the art in any form expect for what the artist has laid out for them.

The principals of interactivity in gaming has changed only a little since the earliest computer games. We still become immersed in the same ways, and we still relate to video games the same way as we did when they first developed. The only thing that has changed is how we interact and control games.
We no longer rely solely on joy sticks and button mashing to send messages to the programs and consoles. We now have touch screen (Nintendo DS), Motion tracking controllers (Nintendo Wii, & PlayStation Move), and motion tracking cameras (Xbox360 Kinect). This style of gaming involves physical interaction with the games which can lead to it being more immersive. These new forms of gaming are attracting new ages and genres of people. The issue is finding suitable games for each type of gamer. The new generation of gamers might be use to gaming without controllers but the older generation might seek comfort in holding something in their hand. Of course there will be resistance to change, but as we can see with the music industry, people will continue to hold on to the past ways but the majority will go with the latest technology.

Games have still not immersed people in all the senses, we cannot smell the places games can take us, nor can we feel the touch of objects we touch in the game. Interactive art like Davie’s Osmose, allowed the participant to alter the art by breathing. If games were to alter based on how we breathed or physically felt the more connected we would become with our character. The more realistic our experience becomes with the game the more immersed we are.