Shanken 45-54

Romy Achituv and Camille Utterback's "Text Rain" (1999) is an interactive piece. It seems simple enough. Text falls down a screen, seemingly random. If a person moves their body, they can stop, grab, or hold up the text. When they let go, the text falls again.
The process isn't random at all. The words come from a poem and are about the body. This ties the movement of the participants with the theme of the work. The text is manipulated by the shade within the viewing area. When it becomes dark, meaning someone is moving their body, the text follows that darkness and moves accordingly. When the shadow disappears the text falls down its intended path.
This is the kind of art I like to see in a museum. This is easy enough for even small children to understand. There aren't any crazy metaphors. It is just text falling that you can play with.

Another interesting installation is Perry Hoberman's "Bar Code Hotel" (1994). Participants enter a room that is all black and white, just like bar codes. The room is filled with bar codes. The participant wears 3D glasses and can then see a colorful 3D world. As they go about the room scanning the bar codes with a light pen, the scene they see changes.

This is definitely something I would try out. The graphics remind me of the video games Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. The beeping of the scans, whether intentional or not, is a nice touch.