Interface #4 / TFT tennis V180 is a video game installation made of steel. On the four rotating points of the installation sensors are placed which detect movement and determine the status or position of the installation. These sensors give their output in volts, the voltages being connected to a computer by a voltage-to-midi device. The final step is a program programmed with Max/MSP which controls and creates the images on both screens and the sound in the room.

The installation has to be played by two people. Of course it’s also possible to play it alone, but then you have to be really fit, because you have to run between each screen.

When using the installation you have to stand in front of a screen and hold it in your hands. Now you can move the screen from left to right and “flip” the sides. You will see that the arms of the installation are moveable when a player changes the position of the tft-screen.

The “flip” rotation of the screen determines the angle of the ball after impact on the screen. The position of the arm and the position of the “flip” rotation between the screen and the arm influence the perspective of the three-dimensional field which each player sees while playing the game. So in the end it’s all about placing your screen like a racket in front of the approaching threedimensional ball and playing it back to the other side of the field by changing or not changing the trajectory of the ball by maneuvering your tft-screen like a racket.

Dirk Eijsbouts (NL), born in 1979, graduated from the Interfaculty Institute for Sound and Image in The Hague in June 2001. He makes spatial installations that function as interfaces for connecting different media. In these installations, different sources of information are linked through (a process of) visual and manual interaction. Ordinarily simple actions (like setting a mechanical device in motion) electronically generate moving visuals and layers of sound. These are successively controlled by the device and the actions appropriate to it.