Tactile Beats is a practice-based research project by Antal Ruhl. In the project, Antal investigates how musical performance might be extended or recontextualized through multisensory technological interventions. Central to this inquiry is a prototype device that emits smoke rings in synchrony with musical rhythm, raising questions about the aesthetic, perceptual, and affective affordances of such interactions.
The guiding research question for the current phase is: How can musical expression be enriched multisensorial through technology?
This question marks a shift from earlier investigations into sensory inclusion toward a more exploratory focus on the artistic and experiential potential of sensorimotor engagement. The project examines how sound, tactility, and visual rhythm may interact in ways that afford new forms of musical expressivity.
The project aims to explore how the smoke-ring tool can be applied in live or rehearsal-based musical settings. Collaborations with musicians and cultural partners are envisioned as part of an iterative design process, in which artistic feedback and contextual testing play a central role.
Tactile Beats is situated in close dialogue with the curriculum of the Avans Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) programme in Den Bosch, where making-based inquiry and situated design form important pedagogical anchors. The project contributes to a broader research-through-design culture in which CMD students experiment with self-developed tools to investigate adaptivity and user experience. This exchange between research and education is mutually informative and supports the integration of experimental design methods into undergraduate learning environments.
Duration: Ongoing project (start 2025), in phase 1 of an ongoing exploration.
Partners or Collaborators: in this experimental phase, the project will be tested with the help of musicians such as Binkbeats
and organisations such as Open Culture Tech.
‘Through an interplay of design and research, the apt questions and necessary tools can be discovered and applied to each research project.’
Antal Ruhl is a researcher within the Situated Art, Design and Technology research group and a tutor at the Communication & Multimedia Design programme at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch.
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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