The present book is based on the author's diploma thesis written at the
Institute of Media and Phototechnology University of Applied Sciences
Cologne and describes the recent development of digital interactive art and
the usage of the graphical programming environment Max/MSP/Jitter.
In the beginning, a brief overview of the present scientific discourse on the
key issues interactivity and interface design are given. Furthermore, it portrays
exceptional examples of digital art within the past five years, focusing on the
main themes of digital installations and software art. This is followed by a
description of Max's main features and programming methods, its extensibility
with control devices and micro controllers, as well as differences to
important alternative graphical programming environments such as Pure data
and vvvv.
The second part documents the whole process of creating an interactive installation
using Max/MSP and its graphics extension Jitter. This includes a description
of the creative concept, the different parts of the soft- and hardware
as well as some of their important key techniques. Finally, a summary of user
feedback and a personal reflection on the project is given.
The book is dedicated to both technicians and artists seeking an introduction
to the present digital interactive art and practical information about the new
emerging graphical programming techniques like Max or Pure Data for creating
meaningful interactive systems.