Tine Bech lecture at Bath School of Art & Design
18 Jan 2012
Tine Bech delivered a lecture about her sculptural work tonight at Bath Spa University in the School of Art and Design. Her fascinating talk detailed how her work explores simplicity, interactivity and intuitiveness, using colour in a bold and striking way. Tine engages with technology when she needs to, as opposed to because she has to. Tine’s artworks bring pleasure and delight to the audience as they experience them, touching, moving and playing.Tine was delighted to see her talk announced by posters made up by BA Graphic Communication students Sebastian Ingham and Will Harvey. In homage to the work that Tine has done, Sebastian made a series of printed balloons showing the date of the lecture and Will made a lit up poster, drilling in plywood.
Catch Me Now by Tine Bech will be showing at Illuminate Bath 2012, by Bath Abbey. For this installation, previously shown at the Science museum and never before shown outdoors, she worked with Tarim, a technologist, programmer and juggler based in the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol. A coloured spotlight will react to the audience as they chase it, growing and shrinking. This simple moving shape takes on a life of its own as the audience applies their own meaning to what it is doing.
Text by Arilda Tymko
Photos by Anthony Head and Tine Bech


‘Big Swim’ part of Cultural Olympiad
01 Sep 2011
More than 200 people in London and Oxford were given a unique opportunity to swim in a cloud of light and colour based on the five Olympic colours....Visual artist Tine Bech, who is based at UCA Farnham, said: “The Big Swim proved to be a fantastic way to celebrate one year until the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“It was a great that so many people took part in a Cultural Olympiad event like this and we hope they enjoyed becoming part of a live piece of art and, of course, the unique experience of swimming in a cloud of Olympic colours.
“The installation was meant to be a playful art experience which promoted the local community’s interest in swimming ahead of London 2012 but I think people took a lot more away from it than that.” Article
Swimming Times, Vol LXXXVIII, Issue 9, September 2011
The Big Swim by Tine Bech
27 Jul 2011
Last weekend, London celebrated one year until the 2012 Olympic Games with special events and exhibitions featuring art, dance, film, and sports events. One such event was the Big Swim, an interactive light installation held at two local swimming pools. At this open to the public event, 220 guests swam in clouds of colour as filtered lights covered the water.Visual artist and researcher Tine Bech created the event in partnership with the Creative Campus Initiative to allow local communities to immerse themselves in the spirit of the 2012 Games. True to Bech’s artistic style, the Big Swim was an interactive public experience reliant on audience engagement and play. Bech wanted to encourage playful art experiences and promote an interest in swimming in prior to the Games.
See article WGSN 27th July 2011
Großartige Installation kündigt Olympiade 2012 an
22 Jul 2011

The Big Swim: Großartige Installation kündigt Olympiade 2012 an.
The Big Swim: Great installation announces Olympics 2012
Leider kann man nur an zwei Tagen in den schönsten Farben abtauchen: Am Samstag, den 23. Juli, im Camberwell Leisure Centre in London und am Sonntag, den 24. Juli, im Barton Leisure Centre in Oxford. Dort errichtet Tine Bech ihre interaktive Installation »The Big Swim«, in die jeder, der sein Badezeug mitbringt, hinein springen kann. Read more
See article PAGE, 22 July, Germany by Sabine Danek.
PAGE gibt auch die Line Extension WEAVE für Interactive Designer, Konzeptioner und Developer heraus.
Going Swimmingly
14 Jul 2011

You might not be the next Mark Foster or Rebecca Adlington, but thanks to a new art installation you could still swim at the Olympics - well, sort of. Read more.
See article Design Week, 14th July 2011 By Angus Montgomery
Big Swim press news
12 Jul 2011
The Big Swim‘In her latest project the Danish artist Tine Bech honours the spirit of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Movement, who said, ‘The Olympics is the wedding of sport and art’.
See Article The Embassy of Denmark London, 1st July 2011.
‘The innovative experience perfectly combined the often contrasting cultures of art and sport ...most importantly it incorporated the key ingredient of fun, leaving the participating public quite literally in the pink’.
See Article B&C Online Journal 9 August by Jamie Rowe
Dive into art and swim through a cloud of light and colour
See Article Creative Boom Magazine, 30 June, UK, by Jaselyn Melling
Collaboration is a good thing…
28 Feb 2011
What I saw as a huge success of the project was the interdisciplinary nature of it, bringing together art and science. Having the physical scientific aspect to the workshops enabled the young people to experience the more tangible side to art; its physical relationship to us in the world. It also introduced them to the world of employment in the arts, or not necessarily in the arts, but into other things through the arts. Read moreLightTAG is a collaborative project led by visual artist Tine Bech. It brings together the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), the University of Surrey and the South East Physics Network (SEPnet).
See Article Arts Professional by Phoebe Gardiner
News from the Kinetica Art Fair
04 Feb 2011
News from the Kinetica Art Fair‘Two works by the Danish artist Tine Bech was featured at the Kinetica Art Fair in London. They both encourage the audience to interact with light and sound.’ The Embassy of Denmark, Get Interactive with light and Sound, Feb, UK.
‘Expect the unexpected - Bringing together art from around the globe, Kinetica Art Fair 2011 boasts quite a collection of robots, flashing lights and interactive fun.’ New Scientist
Kinetica Art Fair 2011, UK's only art fair dedicated to kinetic, robotic, sound, light and time-based art.
View the Catalogue
Video showing a taste of the work shown
Light graffiti' art project gets Southbank showcase
23 Jan 2011
An exhibition that was created by young people from across the South East and uses light and cameras to make art is to be showcased on London's Southbank.Whether you’re a graffiti enthusiast (or even artist); a Banksy book for the coffee-table type or ‘exasperated by wall-scribbles of Godalming’, there’s no doubt of the merits of the Light Tag project.
The project, led by artist Tine Bech and scientist Dr Kathryn Harkup, involved the use of LED lights to make drawings dubbed light graffiti. More than 50 young people created the pieces at workshops in London, Hampshire, Kent and Surrey. They will be shown at the BFI in February and then South East galleries.
See article BBC News 23 January 2011
Light graffiti
20 Jan 2011
Whether you’re a graffiti enthusiast (or even artist); a Banksy book for the coffee-table type or ‘exasperated by wall-scribbles of Godalming’, there’s no doubt of the merits of the Light Tag project.Visual artist Tine Bech, from UCA, who led the Light Tag Project, says, ‘Light Tag has been a fantastic experience for everybody involved. The young people who participated have created a really visually engaging project.
‘One of the project goals is to show youth culture in a positive light and increase the visibility of young peoples’ voices, which I think we’ve achieved.’
Design Week, 20 Jan 2011 By Emily Gosling
Furtherfield interviews Tine Bech
24 Nov 2010
Tine Bech was Interviewed on Resonance FM by Furtherfield on the 24th November 2010 by Irini & Jonathan.
Hear the interview here.
Leonardo Journal
04 Nov 2010
Echidna ll on the front page of Leonardo Journal of the international Society for the Arts, Science and Technology....By integrating touch and other polysensory experiences in the creation/expression/experience of the artwork, more thorough connection develops – a physical memory of tacit experience – between the maker and the made, between user and artefact, between self and other. Read
By Richard Elaver, Leonardo Journal of the international Society for the Arts, Science and Technology, SIGGRAH 2010 Art Papers and TouchPoint Art Gallery, Vol 43, Issue 4, August, USA.
Curating new technologies
15 Oct 2010
Connecting up with the NODE.London Autumn 2010 ‘do It yourself ’ season of media arts, Watermans, in Brentford, has offered up the rather playful ‘Unleashed Devices’ Showing over thirty works, this is remix culture on an impressive scale, and some pick up from where Decode left off !Read more
AN Magazine, Curating new technologies by Charlotte Frost, October Issue, UK.
Berührend
05 Oct 2010
TouchingThe sound sculpture "Echidna 2" Tine Bech and Tom Frame interacts already when approaching the visitors to just a few centimetres. Tine Bech speaks of a kind of object Aura: If one approached his hand to the wire coil, it reacts with electronically electromagnetic sounding hum and crinkling noises. It sounds more shrill and rattles, the further we get closer to him. Thus "Echidna is 2" a hybrid between the traditional exhibit, which is not to be touched, and an interactive work that prompts the user to participate. The sometimes very shrill sounds are aesthetically seen a unit with the wire confusion and enrich the work with humour, which makes it catchy. The Siggraph Art Gallery inspired. It sharpens the senses and awakened the hope for more sensual technologies (Translated from german by Google Translator)
By Andres Wanner, Weave Magazine (interactive design, konzeption & development) Oct/Nov Issue 2011.
Hackers tackle domestic devices
01 Oct 2010
A haunted typewriter and the live corruption of a classic video game are part of an art exhibition deconstructing everyday objects. Called Unleashed Devices, it features work by artists and hackers who take mundane objects as their medium.
By hacking the objects, the artists give them new life or help them shed light on our relationship with gadgets.
Many of the artists use social media as a way to engage the audience and turn spectators into collaborators.
"Participation is really important because for many of the artists in this show, their installations become alive or start to exist only when the audience interacts with them," said Irini Papadimitriou, co-curator of the exhibition at Brentford's Waterman's Gallery.
One such installation that invites interaction is by Tine Bech called Catch Me Now. It couples a narrow spotlight with a movement sensor that directs the light to always move away from those it detects unless they leap into its centre.
BBC News, technology, 1 Oct 2010, UK.
By hacking the objects, the artists give them new life or help them shed light on our relationship with gadgets.
Many of the artists use social media as a way to engage the audience and turn spectators into collaborators.
"Participation is really important because for many of the artists in this show, their installations become alive or start to exist only when the audience interacts with them," said Irini Papadimitriou, co-curator of the exhibition at Brentford's Waterman's Gallery.
One such installation that invites interaction is by Tine Bech called Catch Me Now. It couples a narrow spotlight with a movement sensor that directs the light to always move away from those it detects unless they leap into its centre.
BBC News, technology, 1 Oct 2010, UK.
Digital Design at the at the V&A
21 Sep 2010
Catch Me Now was shown as part of the The London Design Festival and Digital Design Weekend at the at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum), Sackler Centre. It featured Tine Bechs work Catch Me Now and gave people the option to participates in Tines light drawing workshops.See the video from the London Design Festival, Digital Design Weekend produced by the V&A Sackler Centre
Unleashed Devices
01 Sep 2010
Unleashed Devices is an exhibition of DIY, hacking and open source projects by artists who explore technologies critically and creatively. By reconstructing, remixing and reinventing everyday electronic devices, these take on a new life as they shift our vision of the use of data and purpose of technology. Playing with frontiers, such projects not only challenge our conception of technology but also music, art and design. Here, they reveal the power of DIY modes as tools to stimulate social reflection and participation.New ways of engaging with the spectator is a core concern. Unleashed Devices includes playful installations, interactive electronic-sculptures, movement tracking works and performances, as well as coding and hardware based artworks, creating innovative media installations and new experiences. The exhibition, featuring more than 30 artists, was part of the Node.London Autumn season 2010 in London.
Guardian, Games Blog wrote Art and games: three intriguing exhibitions you should try to see ...are all exploring digital technology in interesting ways...
Curated by Irini Papadimitriou, Head of New Media Arts Development at Watermans along with Jonathan Munro Gareth Goodison of TINT.
View Catalogue
Echidna at SIGGRAPH Art Gallery
28 Jul 2010
Tine Bech of the University of West England and University for the Creative Arts presents Echidna, an interactive sound sculpture that is a fussy, tumbled creature that has its own (electronic) voice. When the creature is touched, and the electromagnetic field around it is disturbed, sound emerges. Undisturbed, it hums happily, but when it is touched it squeaks and reacts to human presence. The work combines a circuit that directly measures electrostatic changes in the environment and a custom-designed, phase-locked loop system that drives an audio speaker. See Echidna on YouTube SIGGRAPH 2010 - Art Gallery : "Echinda", Tine Bech
Uploaded by ACMSIGGRAPH on Jul 28, 2010
SIGGRAPH Highlights
09 Jul 2010
From virtual bugs to wearable devices, the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery investigates the multi-sensory nature of human experience in a technologically enhanced environment. The official title is TouchPoint: Haptic Exchange Between Digits, and from more than 250 submitted pieces, the jury selected 14 to be featured at SIGGRAPH 2010. Read More.Echidna at SIGGRAPH: ...Some highlights of the gallery for me included "hanahanahana" by Yasuaki Kakehi, "Strata Caster" by Joseph Farbrook and the delightful "Echidna" by Tine Bech. Each of these installations provided such a unique experience that you lost track of time while experiencing each one. I liked many of the others, but something about these three stayed with me and captured my imagination.
By Ricky Grove, Notes From Siggraph 2010, Part 1, Renderosity
Experiencing Art in Unexpected Places with Tine Bech
05 Jun 2010
To meet local artist Tine Bech is to be instantly drawn into a completely different world of experiencing art first hand. Many people think of art as something to ‘view’. We go to an ‘Art’ space (gallery), pick up a leaflet about the current exhibition, or maybe we have a hi-tech listening device telling us about what we are looking at. We walk a circuit carefully devised by qualified curates, we purchase a postcard at the book shop to remind us of what we saw. We are quiet (Shhhh!), polite and apologise if our shoes squeak on clean floors. Unlike more traditional gallery experiences, Tine Bech’s work is exciting, loud and very public. It begs to be touched and requires audience interaction to be complete... Read more.Transmitter, June 2010, Crystal Palace, London, UK.
Photo by Reesa Amadeo Wolf
Light Research
27 May 2010
Watershed are working with Tine towards the installation of an interactive artwork and these workshop were the first step in researching people's thoughts and feelings in relation to the public space in front of the Watershed. In a series of workshops members of the public and Watershed staff ‘painted with light’ to investigate the spaces in and around Watershed. This documentary shows some of the images made and talks to the participants and artist/ researcher Tine Bech about the process and outcomes of this ‘playful enquiry’.
See the documentary made by Geoffrey Taylor at DShed.
See more, check out Thought Den’ blog about the workshops In the name of research, business & consultation… and the DCRC blog Light Research.
Interview Tine Bech: Light Graffiti
22 Mar 2010
In advance of the public Light Graffiti Workshops, researcher and artist Tine Bech discusses her arts practice and research approach, and how these combined to create a consultation of ‘playful enquiry’.See Video
by Shirin Packham, Pervasive Media Studio.
DShed: Imagination, inspiration & innovation from Watershed.
An online showcase of creative work, talks, commissions, innovation, artist journals, festival diaries and archive projects.
Cultural Leadership Programme Method
17 Sep 2009

Tine Bech was selected for the Cultural Leadership programme Method - Artists leading through their practice. Method has been one of two programmes supported by the Cultural Leadership Programme which focus support on the development of independent leaders in the cultural and creative industries in the UK.
Artists who are leaders understand how their work can achieve wider cultural transformations in the world
Mark Waugh, Director, A Foundation.
On the Edge Research wrote: The Artist as Leader research focuses on the role of the artist working in public and indicate that artists are uniquely placed to inform and creatively develop public life. In seeking to understand the Nature of Creativity in public contexts, this research focuses on the concept of ‘leading through practice’. It opens up a new trajectory of thinking about leadership that is not predominantly management based, in which the role of artist operating within social, cultural and environmental contexts is scrutinised for what it can reveal about creativity in general.
Tine Bech on the fourth floor
23 May 2009
’Danish artist Tine Bech is one of eight international artists in the exhibition Safe to Touch which will open on Friday 22 May at the Hub: National Centre for Craft & Design, in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. The artists are all actively involved in the sphere of what we can loosely label ‘the tactile’ turning the traditional ‘do not touch’ gallery rule upside down – inviting the visitor to touch, participate, explore and reconsider their conditioned behaviour and boundaries. Tine Bech, whose work Tumbleweed is shown on the poster (left) "plays with the ambiguity of uncanny objects, directly involving, even obliging, the visitors to confront their initial feeling of repulsion.’By prydsblog
Exhibition ends on 2 August 2009. More info at Hub National Centre for Craft & Design
See also News by Embassy of Denmark Safe to Touch