The Birth of Interactive Art

A conversation with Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau — the duo who decided art shouldn’t sit still and convinced museums to go along with it. Before “interactive” was a buzzword, they were already building digital ecosystems where plants react, portraits form out of flies, and the audience becomes co-creators instead of just viewers. Christa and Laurent share how it all began — from underground movements and just-to-get-by gigs to shaping the early language of media art. A story of curiosity, experimentation, and why touching the artwork was never the mistake — it was the whole point.