Leonardo Electronic Almanac
16 Nov 2012
Interactivity, Play and Audience Engagement by Tine BechA growing number of artists today are pushing forward the exploration and understanding of audience engagement. As new technologies emerge, different ways to creatively interact and collaborate emerge with them. There is a blurring of the boundaries between artists, audiences and participants which promotes new ways of interacting.
This paper will focus on the making of playful interactive artworks, as an affective model for audience engagement. The paper is based on my artistic practice and draws on my PhD research at the Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC) UK. My practice-based doctoral research focuses specifically on the development of a play directory showing the different kinds of play initiated through interactive artworks, in order to create a model for making playful interactive art installations, which will inform my own and future artists making of artworks. The model is concerned with creating immersive and playful art experiences and is linked to play theory and interactive art practices.
Through my own practice and others it looks at how we can create conditions or possibilities for play within and around interactive artworks. Ultimately, the model aims to connect people with their immediate environment, the artwork and with each other.
Download Interactivity, Play and Audience Engagement by Tine Bech - the paper examines play as tools that may foster engagement and shared forms of participation.
Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) Touch and Go vol 18, issue 3
Edited by Lanfranco Aceti (Senior editor Leonardo, guest lecturer at Goldsmiths and lecturer at Sabanci University), Prof Janis Jefferies Goldsmiths, Irini Papadimitriou curator Watermans and Jonathan Munro Goldsmiths.
Find the full series of papers here
Get the full printed issue at Amazon here
Crafts Council
02 Nov 2012
Assemble 2012: the Crafts Council Conference Video from panel which looked to answer questions regarding how makers and scientists / techies can meet and collaborate, both independently and through academic / public sector partnerships. Followed by Q&A
The overarching theme for Assemble is the contribution craft makes to innovation and enterprise, and the relationship between making, science and technology
Makers work in a far greater range of contexts than is widely realised – bringing innovation and distinctive value to biotechnology, engineering, materials science, manufacturing and digital and communications technology. For scientists, engineers and technologists, collaboration with makers and other creative professionals can bring particular benefits and is capable of introducing new ways of thinking.
Chair: Clare Reddington, Director of iShed and The Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed’s multi-disciplinary research lab.
Speakers: Dr Martin Kemp, Theme Manager, NanoKTN, and Chairman, IOM3 Nanotechnology Committee, Chris Thompson, Senior Adviser for Enterprise & Innovation, Ravensbourne, Tine Bech, visual artist and researcher.
See the video here
Tracking You Research Video
29 Oct 2012
Tracking You with Introduction from Tine Bech on Vimeo.
Tracking You use people’s movements to generate sound. The work is visceral, connecting the human body, technology, and sound to create a playful interactive installation.
People are invited to wear capes that are augmented with RFID tags. Through the use of real-time position technology the capes are tracked and will generate sound depending on where people are in the space, speed and where they are according to each other. Participants can choose between five beautiful silk capes printed with a digital pattern in different colours. Each cape has its own sound profile and participants can shoot each other.
Programmed by Tom Mitchell
Filmed by Haavard Helle at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Supported by Ubisense real time technology and the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE
V&A Digital Weekend Video
15 Oct 2012
The Digital Design Weekend is an annual event at the V&A celebrating contemporary digital art and design, including robotics, hacking and tinkering projects, interactive sound installations, family activities and more. Visitors this year had their portrait sketched by Patrick Tresset's Paul the Robot, they met Anna Dumitriu and Alex May's Robot Companion, took part in Tine Bech's playful game & installation using real-time tracking technology and joined London Fieldworks' digital clinic.
Artist shines light on link between science and theatre
20 Jul 2012
Chromatic Play exhibition at heritage space Guildford CastleIn Chromatic Play, the Great Tower is inhabited by light sculptures that shift and change in colour as you move around them. Experience Guildford Castle in a new light in this artistic sculpture, part of a research project by academics in Arts, Engineering, Sociology and Physics at Surrey, who are exploring the science, performance and experience of light in the environment.
Dr Stuart Andrews, Subject Leader in Theatre Studies at the University of Surrey, said:
Light transforms our lives, it affects how we experience the world and, ultimately, how we live. In the Surrey Light Project, we’re not just interested in how light can be used more efficiently or effectively, but how it transforms the everyday. Working with Tine Bech has been great because it's enabled us to develop a project that combines the science and art of light in a highly engaging and interactive installation.
Article Surrey Advertiser 13 July 2012
Bath Chronicle
19 Jan 2012
Bath light festival to banish winter gloom from city centreNext week Illuminate Bath returns for another fantastic light extravaganza.
Christopher Hansford reveals some of the amazing things your family can expect to see Following a hugely successful first festival in November 2010, Illuminate Bath returns, from next Wednesday, January 25 to 28, bringing beautiful and engaging projected artworks to the city centre.
Banishing the gloom of January's long evenings, this 'festival of light' will include seven original installations in public spaces, all of which will be completely free for the public to explore.
Bath Chronicle 19 Jan 2012.
See Article
Chi-TEK at The Digital Design Weekend at the V&A
02 Dec 2011
The Chi-TEK Tea Party celebrates the talent and prestige women bring to arts & technology, under the playful guise of a tea party. Showcasing newly commissioned works of art from leading women designers, artist, and technologists, Chi-TEK runs Autumn 2011 at the Victoria & Albert Sackler Centre
20 international women artists and designers have been invited to hack a teapot to showcase their unique use of technology in the arts. This is the first time so many contemporary women artists working with technology have been brought together under one roof. Chi-TEK, based on the acronym for Computer Human Interaction - aims to raise the profile of women artists, an under-represented group in this pioneering field. World-renowned artists Shu Lea Cheang and Tine Bech are among the participants, who include interaction designers, sound artists, industrial designers, bio artists, architects, and performance artists, as well as women who work with wearable technologies and sustainability. The work was commissioned by MzTEK.
See the artist and more about the project here Chi-TEK
The Chi-TEK project will run this autumn at the Victoria & Albert Museum Sackler Centre, in London, England, coinciding with the Crafts Council’s Power of Making and London Design Festivals. The techie tea pots will be on display from September through October 2011.
Chi-TEK was launched at the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of the London Design Festival Digital Weekend, September 24th - 25th 2011. Artists presented their teapots and talk about their specialist techniques during a series of scheduled presentations over tea and cake.
20 international women artists and designers have been invited to hack a teapot to showcase their unique use of technology in the arts. This is the first time so many contemporary women artists working with technology have been brought together under one roof. Chi-TEK, based on the acronym for Computer Human Interaction - aims to raise the profile of women artists, an under-represented group in this pioneering field. World-renowned artists Shu Lea Cheang and Tine Bech are among the participants, who include interaction designers, sound artists, industrial designers, bio artists, architects, and performance artists, as well as women who work with wearable technologies and sustainability. The work was commissioned by MzTEK.
See the artist and more about the project here Chi-TEK
The Chi-TEK project will run this autumn at the Victoria & Albert Museum Sackler Centre, in London, England, coinciding with the Crafts Council’s Power of Making and London Design Festivals. The techie tea pots will be on display from September through October 2011.
Chi-TEK was launched at the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of the London Design Festival Digital Weekend, September 24th - 25th 2011. Artists presented their teapots and talk about their specialist techniques during a series of scheduled presentations over tea and cake.
‘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.
Design Week 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
Arts Professional
28 Feb 2011
Collaboration is a good thing…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 more
LightTAG 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
BBC News LightTAG at Southbank
23 Jan 2011
Light graffiti' art project gets Southbank showcaseAn 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
Design Week - 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