Knife.Hand.Chop.Bot
We built a self-fulfilling cybernetic system, that plays with
the senses and perceptions of the User and the sensors and the
processes of the Machine.
The Robot is equipped with a knife that the Machine uses to s(t)imulate the test of courage - a kind of game known as "Fife Finger Fillet"
. The User puts his/her hand into the Machine and starts the knife game
at the push of a button. The knife starts to hit the space between the
fingers, first slowly then continually getting faster. The Machine
knows where to chop by receiving signals of a sensor that guides the
knife to the place between the fingers.
Electric contacts are mounted on the support block ofthe Machine, where the hand is situated. These contacts are activatedas soon as the first "nervous sweat" appears that turns the skin into aconductor. Subsequently the computer becomes disturbed by the electriccurrent that is now transmitted via the skin.
This has two effects: on the one hand, sounds aregenerated by the closure of the contacts (circuit bending) that caneither be interpreted as warning or act as an additional source ofstress. On the other hand, they can have an effect on the position ofthe knife which is controlled by the computer and thereby hurt thepotential perpetrator of the disturbance.
Essential to the set-up is the the feedback loop i.e.the circularity between computer, robot and User. It instantiates thenotion of a self-fulfilling prophecy: The human is right by assuming that the Machine can fail. The Machine can fail because the human assumes.
This puts the courage of the User to the test. Incase the User canÕt keep their trust in the Machine and start to sweat,this "embodied rationality" causes fear and sweat that pertubates thefunction of Machine.
The work is about the a fascinating paradox thatresults from this close relationship between humans and artifacts. Afascination that tries to run a risk and avoid it at the same time.
Therefore we like games that, by playing them, put their rules to the test.
Here are 2 more videos, the first one was shot in Barcelona with the technical director of innMotion Festval thrying the KHCB, even thogh the festival made us sign a contract that noone but us will use the machine ;)
The 2nd video was shot during the first setup of the KHCB at DEAF07 in Rotterdam, a blogwave brought some 60.000 viewers to this youtube clip:
