Samenschijn introduced light art workshops and brought three local generations together into a shared interactive light art project.
We combined hands-on workshops with custom sensor technology to allow passersby to activate these collective results in the public space.
Video: LotteZ -> watch the full video with audio here
Samenschijn originated as a community light art project in Houten during the autumn of 2024.
It served as a catalyst for our later work, including the Levensstromen project, by exploring how light acts as a connective force within public spaces.
The challenge was to introduce light art workshops to 3 generations, make a combined art work and bridge the generational gap.
We needed a framework to gather the stories of elderly residents, the technical curiosity of teenagers, and the creative energy of children, then integrate those inputs into a singular, interactive installation. Our goal was to include a 4th participant: anyone walking through the city center of Houten.
During the workshops at the Haltnahuis, I guided residents through the process of capturing their stories in light. Many of these participants face physical or visual limitations, so we created a light drawing method accompanied by music from local singer Emily van Orsouw and her TimeSlips method to create a space where those stories could surface.
The school children explored the basic properties of electricity by wiring simple circuits to light up models of their own futuristic dream cities.
The teenagers at Shine gained practical experience in interactive design by learning to integrate soft textiles with electronic circuits to create functional interfaces.
All workshop expressions combined resulted in an interactive artwork depicting a future fantasy miniature city.
This was displayed in a vacant shop window at shopping mall Het Rond .
By integrating the workshop inputs with custom sensor technology (by Creative Coding Utrecht), we allowed passersby to interact with the art using their own mobile phones.