Stories
Stories from the field
Explorations in interactive art, digital spaces, and the things that happen when we take part.
Featured storySelection14 min read
Cool interactive websites worth getting lost in
Sixteen interactive websites sorted by what they ask of you, from instruments anyone can play to windows onto the world. Who made each one, what to try first and which device suits it.
More stories
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Guide13 min read
How hand tracking works in the browser
Your webcam can become 21 hand landmarks inside a page. How browser hand tracking works, what stays private, and worlds you can try in Synfield.
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Essay7 min read
A website that asks nothing of you
Most of what we open on a screen wants something back. This essay looks at the difference between interacting and producing, at repetition without progress, at the many ways people pay attention, and at digital works that ask for nothing at all.
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Exploration5 min read
When sound becomes shape: what is cymatics?
Sprinkle sand on a metal plate, make it vibrate, and the sand draws a figure. What cymatics is, why the patterns appear, what Chladni discovered, and where physics ends and artistic interpretation begins.
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Exploration5 min read
Can a website be a work of art?
Most websites show art; some are the art. What net art is, the early works that turned the browser into a medium, who makes web art today, and what changes when a work lives at an address instead of in a room.
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Guide13 min read
Interactive generative art, explained
Some artworks are systems: rules, a little chance and your input, producing something new each time. How they work, three classic examples, how generative art differs from AI-generated art, and a small sketch to make your own.
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Exploration6 min read
What is a particle system in digital art?
Thousands of points, a handful of rules, and an image that seems alive. What a particle system is, how forces move it, and how three Synfield worlds use the idea in three different ways.
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Guide10 min read
What is net art? A complete guide to internet art
Net art uses the internet as its medium, not as a place to post pictures. How the terms differ, the history from net.art to now, and where the work still lives.
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Guide13 min read
What is interactive art? A guide to art that answers back
Interactive art changes in response to what you do. A guide to what that means, how it differs from digital, participatory and generative art, where it comes from, and how to get the most out of it.
