Tate Britain announced this week After Dark, the winning project of the IK Prize 2014, a newly annual prize which aims to transform digital innovative ideas into new ways of discovering art and widens its audience through creative applications of digital technology.
After Dark robot with Jacob Epstein’s The Visitation (1926)
Created by design studio The Workers (Tommaso Lanza, Ross Cairns and David Di Duca), After Dark is an online journey and the first project of its kind being applied in a museum, where people all over the world have the chance to orientate themselves through Tate Britain’s galleries at night via four camera robots equipped with lights, sensors and motors allowing the walk in the dark. The Robots have been created in collaboration with RAL Space, a world-leading centre for the research and development of space exploration technologies.
After Dark robot with Henry Thomson’s The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter 1820
Colonel Chris Hadfield, former commander of the International Space Station, has been the first person to navigate the After Dark robots, doing this from his home in Toronto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_RB1ENTayU
For five consecutive nights the project will allow the public to view the robots on their journey through a unique experience of 500 years of British art and a number of visitors will be able to remotely control their movements. A first-person, real-time video feed and live commentary will be streamed n the After Dark website.
By Xenia Founta
Log onto afterdark.tate.org.uk on August, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 from 22.00 until 03.00. On August, 15 there is an evening for children to operate the robots at a slightly earlier time of 19.30 until 00.30.
All the Images Courtesy of The IK Prize and Alexey Moskvin