Research pick: Blurred lines between artist and audience - "'Move in Tempo': involving the audience through their movement in installation art"

A research-led installation entitled Move in Tempo could reshape how we understand the intersection of human movement, machine learning, and artistic experience. The artwork was developed as part of a growing field at the convergence of interactive media art and computational design. As such, the project functions as both an artwork and an experimental platform. Those involved are thus using it to probe the ways in which physical motion, algorithmic systems, and audience engagement can be integrated into a single responsive environment. They discuss their findings in the International Journal of Arts and Technology.

At the centre of Move in Tempo is a dynamic interaction model. Visitors to the installation are invited either to move within the space, triggering algorithmic responses in light, sound, and digital imagery, or to observe choreographed performers navigating the same system. Crucially, both modes engage with the same technological infrastructure, designed to sense, interpret, and respond to movement in real time.

This infrastructure involves motion-sensing technologies, including depth cameras and inertial sensors. These are coupled to adaptive machine learning algorithms that process gestural input as a form of data. These inputs do not simply control pre-programmed responses, instead they contribute to the live construction of the installation’s aesthetic and structural outputs. In effect, human movement becomes both the medium and the message.

The research team behind Move in Tempo frames the work as part of a broader inquiry into temporality in digital systems. Specifically, they investigate how the rhythms and pacing of human movement can be synchronized with computational processes. Rather than treating time as a background condition, the installation makes it an explicit parameter: tempo, duration, repetition, and variation all shape how the system responds and evolves. This has implications not just for the arts, but for any field where human-computer interaction relies on timing, gesture, or non-verbal cues.

Nogueira, M.R., Simões, J.B., de Carvalho, J.M. and Menezes, P. (2025) ‘‘Move in Tempo’: involving the audience through their movement in installation art’, Int. J. Arts and Technology, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp.1–22.