Under DC

Oakland, CA - 2004
by Clark Scheffy

Project Description

With this project, I was trying to create an intimate interactive piece that displayed a simple fear instinct. My inspiration was creatures like rolly-pollies that roll up when you poke them, or plume worms that you see if you are lucky enough to get a chance to go snorkeling or scuba diving somewhere tropical. Plume worms respond to waving in front of them by retracting into their tubes. If you are patient, they come out and show themselves again; if you irritate them, they retract until you go away or are still.

System

I used a cannibalized PAiA Theremax kit as a sensor. I was able to connect the Theremax controlled voltage output directly to a Teleo Intro module. A Teleo Servo module was used to actuate the "creatures."

I used Max/MSP to create a patch for the behavioral response to the signal coming from the Theremax - when you entered the field sensed by the theremin, the "creatures" would retract. If you then waited a few seconds and were either still and didn't move too close to the piece, or you went away from the piece, the creatures would slowly come back out of their tubes and enter a "feeding" mode, which was a somewhat randomized behavior. If people got too close, for example tried to touch the creatures, they remained retracted until people moved away.

The creatures' movements were actuated by several hobby servos and simple armatures.

It was great to see people work to learn the behavior of the piece and interact with it. The piece rewarded patience and being still. The best moments were when someone would approach as others were patiently waiting for the creatures to come back out of their tubes, and the patient people would get visibly frustrated by the newcomer who "scared" the creatures. Then everyone would have to wait until they decided to come out again.