Chapters 7-9 Terminal Time and the Art Gallery to Before and After

The readings in chapter 7-9 were, as they should be, another assignment of continuation and building upon the last two readings of chapters 1-6. Chapters 7 brings us out of the gallery and into another section of the SIGGRAPH convention located now in a theater.The exhibit now being explored is Terminal Time. Its creaters Mateas, Domike, and Vanouse describe it as and " audience powered history engine that combines mass participation, real time documentary graphics, and artificial intelligence to delivery the history the viewers deserve" This is an interesting exhibit that differs from many of the previous because it accounts for the ideas of the majority rather than one person " the user is an audience rather than an individual" (page 135) A multiple choice question is first asked to the audience whose answer is based on an applaude meter. In this portion the audience is conscious of the interface and think about their own answer as well as the answers of the rest of the audience. Based on the applaude meter, the historical event with the largest reaction is chosen and a short film is presented. The audience has now switched form the participants to the viewers. They are meant to experience the film rather than think about it. This exhibit as stated in the books makes the audience aware of the content as well as the cultural assumtions and influences on the context itself.
Chapter 8 now gives us an almost arial view of the SIGGRAPH art gallery itself. It describes how the galleryas a whole is an exhibit itself created by the lighting, space, direction and placement of exhibits. The concept that I found most interesting within this chapter was on page 147 "Digital art is about performance. As users we perform the design, just as we would a musicasl instrument....Digital artists and designers create instruments that the user will play" This stood out to me because it described the creation of the intrument or art which was created with a purpose and the user is able to take that art and create such as the letters in TEXT RAIN or the experience in Magic book. 
Chapter 9 now leads into a more informational section that for all intensive purposes ends our tour of SIGGRAPH 2000 with a series of information and reflection on what has been touched upon throughout the first 8 chapters of the book.