Inspiring Works

An archive of existing projects relating to the interaction between humans and designed objects.

[andrewodowd-blog]

Ubiquitous Computing and Aesthetics

If a Thing cannot see itself how can it know in what way it relates to other Things and it’s environment?

How to design computers so they are more natural in their environment has been a dilemma for decades. In order to become more native it has been agreed that such computers need some awareness of their environment and the other things in it. Beyond this, I believe, these computers require some awareness of their own physiology in order to create existential rationales.

[andrewodowd-blog]

MIT Robot Fish, is capable of mimicking fish motion and infiltrating schools of fish in order to co-habit and study them.

http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/3/16/eaar3449.full?ijkey=ThPQIrxtGmySQ&keytype=ref&siteid=robotics

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Organic creatures sense the world through a limited and specific variety of sensors. David Eagleman’s work investigates the signal processing of the sensory network and demonstrates that environmental data can be substituted between different sensors.

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When the dots were configured to look something like two eyes above a mouth, the team captured 40 occasions where a fetus seemed to track this pattern when it moved. As a control, the team inverted the three dots – one dot sitting above two dots, instead of two dots sitting above one. Out of 195 tests of each configuration, fetuses turned to follow the “face” shape 40 times, and the inverted image only 14 times. Vincent Reid et al., June 08, 2017, Current Biology, Volume 27 Issue 12.

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Robots that do not claim to possess human level intelligence are common place and do mundane tasks. The future of AI may reside in a society of single function machines like this. Companionship requires something else...

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Parasitic/Symbiotic, is a device art piece by Ann-Katrin Krenz that questions the relationship between nature and technology. The project presents technology as a parasite much in the way technology interferes with our natural lives.

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Yayoi Kusama has become an intrinsic influencer of mine. Her dedication to the use of simple shapes in order to create complex visual experiences reminds me that the level with which technology is being designed nowadays may well be unnecessary, or in fact distracting, in the production of meaningful experiences between humans and technology.

[andrewodowd-blog]

Night and Fog, 2016, demonstrates the power Environment has on us. This installation, while primarily sonic, utilises the aesthetics of the environment and meticulously implanted loudspeakers to transform the experience of the space.

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Blue - Yves Klein (1957)

Stripping away the complexity of feature and shape this artwork demonstrates that even a formless entity, just colour, stimulates interaction from us.

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Study for 15 points / 1, by Random International, is a critique of the perception of human or humanoid. The artwork attempts to generate the minimal movement in order to appear as human.

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The Listener, by Patricia Paccinini, is a designed companion. It heavily uses the biological characteristics of a human at a scale that denotes the role subservient, or pet. The proposition considers that humans can quickly comprehend other beings that possess common physiological properties. This encourages trust, which is the primary intent of the creature.

[andrewodowd-blog]

The relationship between humans and robots is one that often implies both have human like interactions and the robot presents humanlike physical characteristics. This project by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby presents robots without faces, without humanlike physical features. They only possess behavioural characteristics a human can relate to.

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An alternate perspective on the discourse of behavioural interactions between humans and OTHER. The representation of intelligence is not limited to human level of awareness or acting within environments. While plants do not have brains the are aware of their environments and interactions upon them.

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The Octavia is capable of conveying expressions, but it turns out facial expressions aren’t required for people to feel emotionally attached to their robots.

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Reactive object that exhibits human response to interaction

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Micro pets, by marie polakova, proposes future pets in this speculative design piece. Highlighting the attributes that define the relational roles between pet and pet owner this project subverts the common visual parameters that define a pet.

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Carnivorous domestic environment robots, proposes designed objects to have the ability to digest living things and produce energy in doing so. The objects are classic design pieces and speculative propositions. The familiar objects fulfil their originally intended role with the enhanced attribute of a fundamental biological attribute.