Shown above is a still from Harm van den Dorpel’s Ethereal Self .com.
This website is an interactive depiction of a diamond.

It is a depiction because it looks like a diamond, but it is not a diamond, it is a representation of a diamond in 2-dimensional space.

It is interactive because it uses your webcam to create the illusion of light reflecting through a diamond.
When you move, the image changes.

Interactive depiction has been thoroughly explored in video games. Mario starts running when you press a button, and he runs faster when you hold 2 buttons. But video games are always goal oriented.

Interactivity is usually a means to an end. What if it is a destination?

When we look into the world, we are not distant observers, we are involved. Interactivity is an important dimension of representation, and an important part of our perception. Interactive depiction is an area that has hardly been explored in art. Hopefully we have only seen the beginning of it. There are many gestures and subjects still untouched.

Am I drawn to it?
Do I feel a strong attraction or connection?
Does it trigger a series of thoughts?
Does it change my thoughts?
Does it set a mood?
Does it amplify my emotions?
Does it encourage me to make something?
Does it provide new information?
Is it beautiful?
Does it intensify perception?
What is the level of abstraction?
Does it awaken memories?
Does it make me curious?
Do I want more of it?
Does it summarize an era?
Is it innovative?
Does it stand out?
Do I remember it after 10 minutes?
Does it surprise me?

I was familiar with computers since I was small, and I had seen the internet on TV… but it’s harder to show a website on TV than to show TV on a website. My first real internet experience was at the library, I was 16 years old. I surfed a bit, mostly looking for interviews with bands. It was terribly slow, but I enjoyed it already. A few months later our home computer got a dial-up connection and I got more into it. I would write down my favorite websites on a piece of paper, I did not know about browser bookmarks…

Dutch progressive broadcasting station VPRO used to have a website with “Lifesavers”. Lifesavers were something that “does not happen in a book, does not happen on TV, an experience specific to the internet.”

It was a series of experimental websites by artists such as Peter Luining and Han Hoogerbrugge, exploring what a website could be, and playing with the slow connections of the internet, turning it into a strength.
I still love small files.

(this is part of a forthcoming interview by Johanna Bergmark)

AW: Rafaël…
RR: Andy…
AW: How are you?
RR: I’m good. I just threw away a lot of trash so I feel really good.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than throwing away things.
AW: What did you throw out?
RR: Books, T-shirts, electronics… stuff. How are you?
AW: I’m OK.
RR: What’s the after-life like?