Tanja Kristan’s interactive projects span a range of innovative media, from handcrafted stop-motion games that critique gaming culture to participatory installations that explore the intersection of technology and human interaction. Her work combines physical computing (Arduino, Processing) with critical design, creating immersive experiences that challenge traditional notions of authorship and inclusivity in digital art.
Selected Interactive Artworks
Drawing Machine – Bare Hands
This experimental setup turns your laptop’s webcam into a creative collaborator—using Processing to transform live video into physical drawings. Participants select colors directly from the feed by moving their hands, and the machine translates those choices into brushstrokes through custom code and mechanical actuators.
The magic happens in Processing, where computer vision tracks your gestures and color picks, sending data to motors that guide the drawing tools. It’s a dance between your intent and the machine’s logic, blurring the line between human and algorithmic authorship. When the final mark hits the paper, you’re left wondering: Who’s really in charge here—the hand, the code, or the partnership itself?
Group Projects
Watch me Dance!
I was part of the Watch me Dance! Project – where our group designed an installation with VVVV and the Kinect, where a camera was activated the moment you were standing in a specific pose. You learned to participate in a Stop Motion Dance dance without even knowing how to dance. You can see our result here or at least me trying it out.
Cabinet de Marionettes
On the final day of Werkschau several actors and artists controlled prepared puppets live with a finger movement tracker, Ultraleap, to perform in an improv show.
You can find another Picture from one of the participating artists – Benjamin Hohnheiser – on his Portfolio.
Workshops
Microcontollers and more
I conducted a series of workshops on microcontroller programming, electronic circuits, Scratch and programmable robots across multiple Austrian locations. Each workshop, conducted on a professional basis, showcased my expertise in crafting hands-on learning experiences that sparked student curiosity and built technical confidence
Robotic Workshops with Ars Electronica
As part of the Create Your World Tour, I led engaging robotics workshops for students across Austria. With programmable robots, we explored the basics of coding and even loaded programs directly onto the machines to control their movements. The Neue Mittelschule Gaming highlighted one of these sessions in a lovely post, showcasing the joy of making technology accessible to young minds.
Honorary Mentions of other projects
Tangram Connect: A Joyful Kinect Game Experiment
In my early days of timebased and interactive media, I created Tangram Connect, a cooperative game using the Microsoft Kinect which used the traditional Tangram Game as inspiration. Players controlled virtual puzzle pieces with their bodies, but the sensor would mix up whose limbs it tracked, turning the game into a hilarious guessing match with impossible contortions.
Though it remained a prototype, Tangram Connect taught me about embracing technical limitations as creative constraints. It was my first own project with Processing and Arduino, and its playful chaos remains a cherished memory of my early experiments in interactive design.
Voodoo Doll Geddan: Interactive Meme Commentary
A playful interactive installation merging internet memes and physical interaction. Participants press sensors on a voodoo doll to manipulate a video of exaggerated “Geddan” dance poses (inspired by a Nintendo 64 glitch and J-pop music).
Built with Arduino (pressure sensors), Pure Data (video/audio control), and dark humor, it explores how digital trends “possess” us. Created during my studies as a quirky commentary on meme culture’s viral absurdity.
Quest: Click& Point Adventure with the Game Engine Unity
This quirky point-and-click adventure uses handmade stop-motion puppets and pixel-art nostalgia to follow a gaming girl’s “epic” quest through early 2000s digital life. Merging humor with critique, it tackles female stereotypes in gaming—juxtaposing casual players, hardcore rivals, and game studies—while celebrating gaming as a space for self-expression. Like Harold Halibut’s tactile charm, it revels in analog-digital hybridity, but with a satirical lens on gaming culture’s gendered dynamics. A lighthearted yet incisive tribute to finding joy in virtual worlds, free from belittlement.
VR Headset Quest Hack&Slay Game: Klagenfurt Game JAM
Collaborattion on a VR hack & slash prototype exploring the intersection of gaming and interactive art at the Klagenfurt GameJam. Using Unity and Oculus/Meta devices, we tested how VR’s immersive mechanics could transform traditional combat systems into expressive, body-driven art tools—blending frenetic swordplay with experimental gesture-based interactions. The project aimed to push VR beyond gaming conventions, imagining how physicality in digital spaces could redefine player agency and artistic storytelling.