For this project I took apart an old computer mouse and turned it into a remote control computer mouse. While it no longer serves its original purpose, it has been transformed from a functional but broken device into a useless but working device. This piece is also a visual pun, because it rolls around on the ground like a living mouse.
This mouse is a piece of rogue technology which has come to life, but instead of trying to take over the world it simply is content to roll around on the floor.
For this project, we were interested in the look and feel of stress on the CMU campus. The original intent was to make our piece interactive and crowd-source in realtime people’s thoughts and feelings on stress. Technical difficulties and a lack of time however forced us to consider an approach that was not real-time, but achieved the same goals. The piece thus works as follows: a participant listens to a video question about stress from the last participant, answers this question with another video, and finally records a video question for the next participant. We were intrigued by this self-propagating feature of the piece because we believe it adds a feeling of genuineness and authenticity when the questions about stress come in the form of a dialogue from a peer. The piece was projected on the memorial right in front of the Hunt Library – a location where we were sure to find stressed college students.
Pinokio is an animatronic lamp that is an exploration into the expressive and behavioral potentials of robotic computing. A webcam, microphone, servos, and halogen globe are hacked along with Arduino and OpenCV to bring the lamp to life. More info here
The piece was created for the english indie band, The XX. It consists of a room full of stepper motor controlled Sonos speakers that pivot to follow listeners as they move through the space. More info here
Vincent and emily are two self-willed robots designed to explore solitude of a partner relationship and their impulses. The robots capture sounds and movement via sensors and react on those signals with their own expressions. More info here
Void is a large scale mechanical structure that uses 8 synchronized suspended winches to produce light paintings over the public parking lot in Nagoya, Japan. The piece was inspired by Jurg Lehni’s printer mechanic sculpture. More info here
In this piece, Viennese artist Alex Kiessling creates three artworks simultaneously in three European cities with the help of two robots. The final result is three independent, yet connected pieces that can be regarded as a global work. More info here
