At Hand is an interactive piece designed for touch screens in public space. The project is about urban gestures, micro spaces of the street and the possibility of encountering otherness. Its starting point is in European flows of migration and specifically the recent appearance of beggars in Helsinki's city spaces. How should we encounter and respond to the new gestures of plea directed towards us?

The project explores the experiential and expressive possibilities of multi-user touch interaction via an orchestration of intimate close-ups of gesturing hands, and the dynamics of the touch interface. It is custom designed for the MultiTouch screen technology and will be presented on the CityWall interactive screen installed at Lasipaltsi in the centre of Helsinki.

At Hand: touchers of the screen - photo Kimmo Mustonen

Heidi Tikka interviewed by MultiTouch at the MFF opening here:

Heidi Tikka is a media artist and researcher whose work explores the interfaces between affect and technology, the private and the public. Her work has been shown internationally and she was the recipient of the first AVEK Media Art award (2004) and the Prix Möbius Nordica Innovation award (2005).

The project  is produced for the Media Facades 2010 festival in collaboration with MultiTouch Ltd. and co-produced by the artist with m-cult and Crucible Studio, Media Lab Helsinki, Aalto University School of Art and Design / software designer Teemu Korpilahti. Its development is supported by a grant from the Aalto University Media Factory.

Thanks to: Social centre Satama.