Viewers interact with art

Intertwining art and reality, Margaret Dolinsky’s “Inter:Facing” premiered Sept. 9 in the Grunwald Gallery of Art at the School of Fine Arts.

Five pieces filled the gallery and allowed audience members to interact with the computer-mediated portraitures.

Simulating a walk through a forest and playing with fish in a pond are just two of the pieces Dolinsky has created.

“All of these figures in my pieces came from my sketches or paintings,” Dolinsky said. “They jump out at me and allow me to step into their world and go beyond the surface.”

Dolinsky said interactivity between the art and the audience completes all of Dolinsky’s works.

In a piece titled “It’s All About You,” a facial detection camera is used to place the audience’s face into the portrait. The figure in the painting interacts with the viewer by changing its expression and the portrait’s background.

“Each piece invites the audience in,” Matthew Gunselman, Dolinsky’s assistant, said. “Our generation is so computerized, which allows us to relate to these works. It’s a new
experience.”
Another piece, titled “Figuratively Speaking,” creates a virtual environment in which the audience wears 3-D glasses and uses a controller built to look like the figure’s face.
The eyes on the controller serve as a joystick, and allow the viewer to adopt the point of view of the figure within the piece.

The viewer can walk around and interact with the figures in the imaginary world.

“I knew Ms. Dolinsky from a class I had taken where we actually created works similar to ‘Figuratively Speaking,’” Jessica Hamman, an attendee at the opening, said. “This was a lot more than I expected, and I really like the graphic and abstract factors of it.”
Because these pieces of art are different from a typical painting or photo, the question of archiving lingers in the artist’s mind.

“You can show a picture of the video or image, but it’s not like being there,” Dolinsky said. “It’s my cross to bear using this type of media, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Because audience interaction does finish all of these works, Dolinsky said she hopes that the audience will take a message from her exhibit.

“I’m hoping the audience will experience a perceptual moment and to just have fun,” Dolinsky said. “I want them to notice something different about themselves and to usurp reality.”

“Inter:Facing” will be on view at the gallery through Saturday, Oct. 1. All events are free and open to the public.