I remember as a child going barefoot to the stream behind my family’s home and looking under rocks for bugs, worms, and things that wriggle. I think that almost everyone has experienced some version of this scenario. For me it acts almost like a stand in for unbridled curiosity.
With ‘Worm Stone’ and ‘The Search’ I am recreating a version of this formative memory. The bottom side of each stone has an inlaid screen with ‘bugs’ or ‘dust bunnies’ continually milling around, and when one side is lifted up to peek underneath, all of the code creatures flee to the lowest point and hide just off screen. When the stone is returned to its original flat face down position, the bugs go back to their routines of meandering around the screen.
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The Servo Oysters were the first project conceived when thinking about ambient animation and using physical computing for interactive art making. They are entirely self contained with a microcontroller, lifting gear mechanism, tiny servo motor, battery pack hidden in the bottom shell, and among the dappling of barnacles that encrust the outsides of the upper shells each one has a hidden photocell that detects light levels. The oysters can tell if a shadow, and thus presumable a person, is looming over it. In response to the incoming change in light data, they snap shut, recoiling and protecting themselves. Otherwise they typically open and close lazily, basking in their unobstructed light.
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