MILWAUKEE (AP) — Move your hands atop the worn table in the darkened room and it responds with jumbled sounds: a man and woman talking, knives being sharpened, tires screeching, breathing, music.

Walk on the 30-foot-by-20-foot floor piece and its glowing orange, yellow and red shapes that resemble microscopic organisms form “scars” in response to movements. Stand before what seems to be a large abstract painting on the wall, and projected single and multiple lines are mysteriously drawn where you stand or move.
These are works in the “Act/React: Interactive Installa-tion Art,” making its world premiere at the Milwaukee Art Museum through Jan. 11.

Guest curator George Fifield said previous interactive pieces asked viewers to use a mouse or keyboard, but this is the first exhibition that just allows viewers to move through the space to help create art.

Calling this his dream exhibition, Fifield said it’s one of the biggest of its kind, with six artists creating 10 works.

“Previously, art has always had to be passive,” said Fifield, a Milwaukee native who was in town from Boston supervising the installations. “You look at a painting, you listen to music, you read a book and you experience it but ... you’re merely receiving it, and with interactive art you are actually doing it. You are changing the path you are traveling through and in many ways, as you can see here, you are changing the artwork itself.”

Interactive art is still trying to gain the widespread respect of the art world, with some arguing true art is completely controlled and written by the artist, said Fifield, who is the founder and director of Boston Cyberarts Inc., which produces the Boston Cyberarts Festival.

Fifield described the exhibition artists as pioneers, much like Edouard Manet, who helped the movement of Realism to Impressionism in painting. “Every time you make a change in the rules in how you make art, there are people who will claim this is not art,” he said.

Museums have only recently featured exhibits solely on interactive art, instead of just including pieces as parts of other shows, he said; it’s being increasingly accepted with a generation that grew up with computers and computer games.

What could be called the exhibition’s signature piece — on much of the museum’s advertising — is “Healing Pool” by Brian Knep.

The piece — with its orange, red and yellow shapes transforming in the wake of visitors — is a reincarnation of some of his other pieces and makes its world premiere at the museum.

“Healing Pool” is about scarring that happens through the healing of a wound, as well as aging and growing through change.

At any point, the floor will reflect everyone who has walked across it, Knep said.

Knep, who studied computer science and math at Brown University, said it’s exciting to try to make technology less soulless and isolating. His goal is to put a part of himself in the art and for people to be aware that his energy flowed through the piece.

“In a way, I use technology to try to make it softer, to make it more human and it’s a hard thing to do but that is my challenge,” he said.

Knep’s work is done with projectors, cameras, computer code and algorithms, but both Fifield and Knep say the pieces aren’t about the technology.

People will be forced to interact with the art, with as few benches as possible, Fifield said.

The museum plans to sell pin art, and heat and light reactive T-shirts with the show, said museum spokesman John Eding.

If you go

WHAT: The Milwaukee Art Museum’s “Act/React: Interactive Installation Art” display

WHERE: Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; open until 8 p.m. Thursday

INFORMATION: (414) 224-3200 or www.mam.org

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