OurVoice: A Field Experience at an Art Exhibition

In July 2024, a unique artistic experience took place at the courtyard of the Ezzeddine Medjoubi Regional Theatre in Annaba, through an exhibition featuring the paintings of Algerian artist Djemal Temtam. The exhibition was jointly organized by Orkids Incubator, the Directorate of Culture, and the artist, bringing together art, the public, and a new form of interaction.

For the OurVoice team, the exhibition represented an important opportunity to move beyond testing the application in a controlled environment and experience its use directly with real visitors. The team integrated a QR code with each exhibited painting, allowing visitors to access the OurVoice application and record their personal artistic interpretation or impression of the artwork.

The experience aimed to observe how visitors would react to the idea of expressing their perception of a painting through their own voice. Rather than simply looking at the artworks, visitors were invited to become active participants in the exhibition by sharing what they felt, understood, or imagined while viewing each painting.

To encourage participation and create a stronger connection between the visitors and the artworks, artist Djemal Temtam offered one of his paintings as a prize for the best artistic interpretation submitted through the application. This initiative added a playful and participatory dimension to the exhibition and encouraged visitors to engage more deeply with the artworks.

Over several days, the OurVoice team was present on the ground, observing visitor behavior, explaining the experience, assisting users when necessary, and collecting their reactions and feedback. This direct contact with the public provided valuable insights that could not have been obtained through technical testing alone.

The exhibition became a real-world testing ground for OurVoice, allowing the team to discover how people interact with the concept, what encourages them to participate, and what difficulties or questions may arise during actual use. The positive response from visitors confirmed the potential of the concept while also providing the team with practical observations and feedback to improve the application.

For the OurVoice team, this exhibition was therefore more than a demonstration of the application. It was a field experiment in real artistic conditions, where technology was placed directly in the hands of the public and tested through genuine interaction with art.