highlike

Lilla LoCurto & Bill Outcault

The willful marionette
the willful marionette (2014) was created by artists Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault during a residency with the University of North Carolina Charlotte, working with the College of Computing and Informatics as well as the College of Art and Architecture. The marionette is 3d printed from the scanned image of a human figure and responds engagingly in real time to spontaneous human gestures by reading a viewer’s movements and expressions. Its strings are manipulated by motors and software and there are two depth sensors that read and analyze the behaviors and gestures of participants. The puppet’s subsequent actions are designed to elicit further responses, creating an exchange focusing on the frailty and insecurities of the human participant and raising issues of contemporary relevance. The intention of the project was not to create so much a perfectly functioning robot but rather to imbue an obviously mechanically actuated marionette with the ability to solicit a physical and emotional dialog with a viewer.

John Butler

Gaitkeeper
“Just be yourself, and nobody else”. Our motions, as distinctive as our faces, will soon be captured and interned. Gaitkeeper is a biometric control suite designed to counter the challenge of ‘Locomotive Camouflage’. LoCam, which combines the physical control of dance with the unpredictability of performance art, is rapidly being adopted by civic insurgents. Gaitkeeper units, based on the off-the-shelf Kiva chassis, are now being deployed as standard counter measures.