![screen 5.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPktfAbRJtFZC6GAoLkN7QPaQ52GZ39aMQPPGn3Y5szgH/screen%205.png)

# Using Digital Technology to Create Interactive Artworks
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About four years ago I became enthralled by the idea of using Adobe Flash to create interactive digital artworks. I've always loved any art that challenges the pretensions of the typical gallery set-up and inspires direct interaction between the spectator and the work. Usually that manifests as public art, where works can be directly touched and utilized instead of simply hanging on a blank white wall in a cold gallery space. But with Flash, I realized I could accomplish a similar sense of playfulness with my work and distribute it directly to the spectator's computer. In a sense the work could behave like an installation within the digital public space, where any person could access and interact with it, the same way they could access a public sculpture in a park. 

I had already been sharing my drawings online, but always with a sense of dissatisfaction knowing that the digital scans were never as effective as seeing the real thing. However, when the idea itself was predicated on a digital application, it became much more satisfying to share my work online. The interactive Flash works I created specifically address the give and take between the digital and the analog sides of my creative process. 

# Peeling Away Digital Layers to Find the Juicy Analog Center
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This first interactive Flash animation I ever coded is titled *Stein Eins* (translation: *Stone One*). When you open the program in your browser you are confronted with a pristine platonic solid, a rhombicosidodecahedron:

![screen 1.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcu5yLfvxY5xoA8fEjWJQWGiEk2TD7NNLhjqegW2fKjma/screen%201.png)

With no instructions on what to do, your curiosity is hopefully piqued just enough to start clicking and attempting to understand the object. You quickly realize you can click and drag the pieces to uncover hidden layers beneath:

![screen 2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQqi6ucY3B8TbFG3i3FArvczc8ULpM5xUx6bLXiGtyiKL/screen%202.png)

A few more clicks and you start to see signs of the juicy hand-drawn center:

![screen 3.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUUSW22deqV8jSatE8ETDoy3SXeiMqd8WusqCT5am64jV/screen%203.png)

The further you go, the more uncharted territory you discover. The previously unknown world is waiting to be uncovered

![screen 4.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbWK6M6WMGKLV5JgwfuULSznEQCLzHR4k1JJ9mtQuRjRb/screen%204.png)

Here is the original drawing I used for this animation:

![Rhombicosidodecahedron_edit2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXQbsADTGJiRRN13xw2Z7Z8KTuh9tmy4DxtBJXkD5atvT/Rhombicosidodecahedron_edit2.jpg)

<center>*Rhombicosidodecahedron*, ink on paper, 2013</center>

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If you'd like to try the interactive game yourself, make sure Flash is enabled on your browser and click PLAY below. If it downloads the .swf file instead of opening it in a new window, then you have to make sure Flash is installed. I've had less problems opening it in Safari than in Chrome.

## <center>[PLAY](https://www.ericrossbernstein.com/s/SteinEins.swf)</center>
<center>*Stein Eins*, interactive Flash animation, 2013</center>

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Pro-tip once you get it open: hit the space bar and all the pieces go flying at the same time:

![screen 5.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPktfAbRJtFZC6GAoLkN7QPaQ52GZ39aMQPPGn3Y5szgH/screen%205.png)

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of this work in the comments below. Earlier this year Adobe announced that it will be phasing out the Flash application by 2020, so I guess I'll have to find another program that allows this kind of digital interaction.

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