New Media and Self Expression [The Changing Relationship Between Sender/Creator and Receiver/User]
"Composing 's one thing, performing 's another, listening 's a third. What can they have to do with one another?" (John Cage, Experimental Music: Doctrine, Silence, p. 15) In this paper we hope, among other things, to describe various works that are interactive.avant la lettre, or exhibit interactive qualities without actually being interactive. Time. Is it necessary? How does time get into, and how does it stay out of, art works that use recent technologies? Meaning. How do artists put meaning into art made under the influence of computers? How do viewers of this art get meaning out? Where is meaning located in these works? Does meaning mean anything? Or should we rather be thinking about power relations, desire, and textuality? Intention. In interactive works does what the artist intended count more, less, the same as it always did? Do we have to consult the artist to know how what to make of the work? This paper looks at some aspects of these questions, referring to the work by or about Slavoj Zizek, Richard Wollheim and Roy Shafer.