LO-1

A piece of computational art that inspired me to explore the intersection of art and technology is John Maeda’s “Reactive Books.” These ‘books’, which we published over the course of several years in the 90s, are computer software that each react to a different input type. The first one he published, “Reactive Squares”, is several different black squares that react in different ways to live input from the microphone. I really like the idea of playing with the computer’s ‘senses’ to output media that we can perceive with different senses. As far as know, Maeda was the only one working on the original books. Meada developed custom software for each of the books. After studying computer science at MIT, Maeda went to study at Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan, where he studied and experimented with traditional bookmaking using his knowledge of software engineering. This marriage of very traditional techniques and styles, and modern, responsive software engineering results in really intriguing and thought-provoking pieces.

John Maeda, Reactive Books, 1994-1999