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.
