"Real-time computer art objects are an intellectual concept which can be visually experienced rather than a finalized material object. This kind of computer art exists for the time the participant and the computer with the CRT display are interacting as a process. The art object is not the computer or the display, but the activity of both interacting with the participant.
In addition to its artistic parameters, the content of this art form is dependent upon the dynamics of a real-time process which give vitality and life to the visual display through animation and user interaction. The participant becomes acutely aware of three-dimensional space as images are changed dynamically and this perception represents an important parameter in the aesthetic experience.
...real-time computer art objects are designed so that the aesthetic experience is realized by the user through participation. The passive "viewer" must become an active "participant" in the actual context provided by the system. A case can be made for the idea that art can alter perception, and that since perception is an active organizing process rather than a passive retention-of-image causation, only by actively participating with the art object can one perceive it-and thus, in perceiving it, change one's reality structure.
.....one should conceive of this art form as a kind of aesthetic process which includes basic images, the man-machine interface, and the strategies used by the artist to design the art system. The constraints the artist establishes with the software determine the kinds of options he can offer the participant and the options determine the way the paricipant is to interact with the art object."
IEEE Proceedings, 1974