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Useless Programs, Useful Programmers, and the production of Social Interactive Artworks: Interview with Scott Snibbe

Scott Snibbe, who holds Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Fine Art, and a Master’s in Computer Science from Brown University, creates electronic media installations that directly engage the body of the viewer in a reactive system. His work has been shown internationally at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Artport (New York), Eyebeam (New York), and The Kitchen (New York); the InterCommunications Center (Tokyo); Ars Electronica (Austria); The Institute of Contemporary Art (London); and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). He has been awarded a variety of international prizes, including the Prix Ars Electronica, and a Rockefeller New Media Fellowship. Snibbe has taught media art and experimental film at Brown University, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Rhode Island School of Design and UC Berkeley. He has held research positions at Adobe Systems and Interval Research. His works are designed to have specific social effects: to create a sense of interdependence, to promote friendly interaction among strangers, and to increase viewers’ concentration. Roberto Simanowski talked with him about kids, parents, Buddhism, benches and walls.