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“The Art of Participation,” installation view at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; photo: Ian Reeves, courtesy SFMOMA

Museums, as we’ve discussed, are eager to engage with their public in ways that move beyond handing out headphones. It’s all about interactivity and live art, from the Whitney’s mostly unsuccessful foray into participatory art during the last biennial (You can hear my radio spot on that here) to the Guggenheim’s current relational aesthetics show, “theanyspacewhatever.”

Now, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has upped the ante with “The Art of Participation,” a survey of interactive art that spans almost six decades. It’s the art world’s answer to Choose Your Own Adventure books:

Download Video Videographer: Tammy Fortin, courtesy SFMOMA

I spoke with the museum’s curator of media arts, Rudolf Frieling, about the new exhibit, including the pitfalls and possibilities of participatory art:

Whaddya mean this isn’t worth the price of admission?

Naturally, performances - by both artists and audiences - play a large role in the show. Frieling talked a bit about this role, and why it’s important for museums to include a live element in looking at performance works from the past:

For example, what would Tom Marioni’s free beer salon be without the free beer? In Frieling’s words, a “dead installation”:

And what, in 2008, would an interactive survey show be without the web? “Communimage,” a collaborative online project that’s been going since 1999 (people have contributed 25,837 images, and counting), is one of the ways in which the museum is extending its reach beyond bricks and mortar:

So is BumpList: An email community for the determined. Joining is easy - it’s remaining a member that’s hard:

Participation, like democracy, ain’t for the weak of heart.