Provoking the city-touch installations for urban space

摘要

How should one design a media art installation on a public multi-touch screen? Our article presents a case study of the installation At Hand, which was produced for the Media Facades Festival Europe 2010. In the installation touch became the interaction metaphor for an embodied encounter. The installation pilot is understood as a place in which two research projects come into contact with each other while approaching the installation from the point of view of their disciplinary framings. Together these projects enquire into how a multi-touch screen in a public outdoor location is able to function as the site for an interactive narrative, and question how to foster the transition from spectator to participant at the interface. The first part of the article describes the development of the narrative concept for At Hand. In the second part, the usability of the At Hand pilot is addressed in a field study.