BEAM - Borlänge Experimental Audiovisual Meetingplaces

Abstract

The BEAM project aims to investigate how audiovisual art in public spaces can invite and stimulate interaction between people and their material surroundings, in this case "the city", more precisely the city center of Borlänge, which has been characterized by the death of the city center due to the relocation of food and clothing stores.

The project consists of artistic research inspired by Willims artprobes [1] in the design of the audiovisual installations, in parallell with Steindorfs [2] experimental sound walks, in an attempt to establish new methods for audiovisual research. All of this in close relation to autoethnographic research where concepts of identity, place, urbanity and materiality come into focus. Questions of how the death of a city center, its reawakening and the cultural identification with a place can inspire the creation of audiovisual art are explored through the use of light and sound in combination with the city surroundings as art materials. How the audiovisual installations in turn can stimulate interaction with spaces in the city center, interaction with the work of art and the people in the city is examined as well. The project is a collaboration between Dalarna University and Borlänge Municipality.