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The primary difference between traditional art and media and technological art lies in interactivity. The special feature of this new art form is that it does not exist objectively as such, but rather, is completed and becomes an artwork for the first time through the active participation of the viewer. This is the world which Canadian media artist Luc COURCHESNE explores. |
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COURCHESNE, born in 1952 in Québec, began his career as a video artist and is currently a professor at the École de design industriel at the Université de Montréal. <<Twelve of Us>>, a five-minute short in which various people speak in turn about their recollections of the same fairytale, is a video work representative of his early period. Those who appear in front of the camera inadvertently expose themselves, and their psyches are reflected in their expressions. Here we find the beginnings of COURCHESNE's investigation of human existence and the psyche, a common characteristic of his later interactive works. |
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In 1984 COURCHESNE turned to interactive video production and created his first experimental portrait piece. He presented <<Portrait One>>, a full-scale work utilizing the computer in 1990. This work consists of more than a mere collage of filmed fragments. COURCHESNE introduces a method that allows visitors to converse with fictional characters, thereby creating a theatrical space. The skillful arrangement of the analytically constructed tale almost makes one forget that the people who appear on screen are residents of an imaginary space. |
The structure of the work becomes progressively complex as it unfolds, moving from the simple format of a single portrait to a compilation of portraits. Four characters appear in <<Family Portrait>> which was exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1993. In <<Hall of Shadows>>, shown at The Musˇe d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1996, four separate conversations between visitors and a geologist, mathematician, pediatrician, and plastic surgeon develop in stages. The conversations move beyond that of one-to-one exchanges, and the visitors' interventions effect the group as a whole, which further complicates the structure of the dialogue. The fictional space is more solidly developed in this work. The story ends when the characters realize that they are fictional constructs, thereby negating their existence.
What is important to note about COURCHESNE's works is that they have potentially many different forms, depending on how each visitor experiences them. For instance, in <<Landscape One>>, the fictional drama possesses a variety of storylines which the visitor actualizes with a family on a picnic and young people on bicycles. Visitors-those who participate in the creation of the work-do not necessarily have the same experience. Instead, each visitor encounters a completely different world. The discrete experience of the visitor, as it is remembered, constitutes the artwork. There is no guarantee of uniformity, and the work functions more as an "apparatus" which presents a variety of experiences. Moreover, the work cannot be completed without the participation of the visitor. These special features of COURCHESNE's works indicate not only the numerous possibilities and potential for development of his work, but also of media art in general.
(KOMATSUZAKI Takuo)
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