Introduction to Participation

When one thinks of art, they think of a painting or drawing done solely by one artist and this image is to be admired and celebrated for it harmony with many of the principles of art. However, this definition of art is becoming dated due the changing nature of what people actually see as art. In Participation, Claire Bishop is talking about how the arts began to develop into being participatory, but what makes an art participatory? Well, the main differences is that art is becoming more of a “lean forward” medium. As viewers of art, we are now being forced to not only act with the art occurring, but we are also asked to think about the implications of what we are seeing. Bishop talks about the Parisian mock trial of an author, and of the reenactment of the Bolshevik Revolution. These exemplify the idea of viewers taking place in the art. She also mentions a play that was designed to make the viewers not necessarily sympathize with the protagonist, but to more or less make the audience think about what the protagonist is doing. This is only the beginning of man’s participation with the fine arts. In our current era, there is a massive upheaval in participation in media. Video games are a medium defined by participation, and this is probably the reason why this is a billion dollar industry. Participation is an integral part of the gaming experience, for the developers simply make a sandbox for the gamer to enjoy. The gamer chooses how he decides to play and this is one way in which participation is differing from the older mediums. Games allow the player to truly engross himself in what he is doing, and he makes key decision that affect how the story unravels. He is in control of everything. This is contrary to conventional storytelling, where the listener didn’t have a say in what was happening. But it’s not only video games that are maximizing participation, even television is capitalizing on it with shows like “American Idol”. Viewers are actively engaging in the storytelling format. While participatory mediums allow for viewer interaction, they also make the viewers collaborators with the creators themselves. It takes both to truly the medium an art.