Mixing art and technology: An interactive radio for a museum exhibition

Technology can inspire art. Art explores the context of technology. Combined, they empower artists to create innovative ways to captivate their audiences. Technology can enhance the ability of artists to express themselves. Such enhancement was required for one temporary art exhibit, where a recording had to be played when there was a visitor close to an interactive radio. To support it, we implemented motion sensing of exhibit visitors to allow contextual sound playback based on the visitor’s location. This allowed the artist to add an audible dialogue experience to the art exhibit. We interacted with a local artist and understood the artist vision to define and agree on technical requirements. A preliminary validation at the exhibit showed general acceptance of the system, positive feedback on the experience and areas for future improvement. In general, we believe that more research is required in terms of the artist-visitor relationship mediated by technology.