Monkey Business

source: subtours

A collaborative project realized by Jan M. Sieber and Ralph Kistler
The documentary film was made by Susann Maria Hempel

Overall dimensions of the installation: 180cm x 80cm x 25cm. Monkey: 75 cm tall
Inside components and materials: Kinect Sensor, Computer, Microcontroller, electronic components, Servo motors, steel. Casing: synthetic fabrics, cord, steel
2011.

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A cuddly toy monkey hanging on a wall like a Jumping Jack.
With a friendly “Hello” the puppet starts to react to the visitors movements
and immediately apes every gesture with its arms and legs, its head and body.
You can let the ape act smoothly or invite him to a wild dance.
But in a subtle way the monkey asks for another move you have never ever performed before.
Playing the game you will loose control unconsciously
and after the seductive encounter you might start wondering
what is all this monkey business about?
Who pulls the strings?

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“Monkey Business” is an interactive installation where a cuddly toy monkey apes the gestures of the user. The monkey hangs like a Jumping Jack on the wall and gets his vividness from 10 built-in servos that are driven by a set of a sensor, a processing data computer and a microcontroller. The flexible suspension of the ape together with fast responding motors allows an astonishing quick-witted behavior and a tempting interaction experience for the user. All technical devices are covered in order to facilitate a direct communication between the visitor and the soft toy. The work reflects in a playful way the problem of real natural interaction and states an ironic comment about the present art business through this iconic monkey figure.

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The system consists of a tracking camera sensor (Microsoft XBox Kinect) on top of the toy monkey for tracking the visitor‘s movements, a hidden computer to analyze and convert the tracking data (OpenNI Framework, osceleton, OSC), a programming patch (Processing) to process the data into movement angles and send it to a microcontroller board (Arduino) inside the toy‘s body, which controls ten servo motors attached to a metal sceleton and in this way moves the ape‘s arms, legs, head and body.
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source: fileorgbr

Abstract:
A cuddly toy monkey, hanging on a wall like a Jumping Jack. With a friendly hello the puppet starts to react to the visitor’s movements and immediately apes every gesture with its arms and legs, its head and body. You can let the ape act smoothly or invite him to a wild dace.
But in a subtle way the monkey asks for another move you have never ever performed before. Playing the game you will lose control unconsciously and after the seductive encounter you might start wondering: What is all this monkey business about? Who pulls the strings?
Biography:
Ralph Kistler (1969, Munich/Germany) lives and works in Munich and Tenerife (Spain).
He is interested in the observation of today’s society phenomena by taking his surroundings and his personal life as a reference to query everyday situations with ambiguous and often ironic artworks. To create his art installations, he works with video, electronics, interactivity or kinetic objects. His works were shown in exhibitions and festivals such as Piksel Festival in Bergen, the Transmediale in Berlin, and the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo.
Jan M. Sieber (1975, Heilbronn/Germany) lives and works in Weimar (Germany). He is an artist and inventor whose media installations and performances explore the phenomena, impacts, possibilities, and dysfunctions of multimodal human/machine interfaces.
In Weimar he runs interactions.cc, an engineering office for interactive media. His works and his curated exhibitions have been shown in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and China.
Monito (2011, Guía de Isora/Spain) lives and doesn’t need to work in Weimar (Germany).
He loves to dance and to fool people. Since the release of his successful work “Who pulls the strings?”, he spends most of his time hanging out with other monkeys or hanging on walls somewhere in the world, doing nothing else but monkey business.
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source: fileorgbr
Abstract:
Um macaco fofo de brinquedo está pendurado em uma parede na posição de um exercício de aquecimento. Com um cumprimento simpático, o boneco começa a reagir aos movimentos do visitante e imediatamente imita cada gesto com seus braços, pernas, cabeça e tronco. Você pode deixar o macaco atuar tranquilamente ou convidá-lo para uma dança maluca.
Porém, de uma maneira sutil, o macaco pede outro movimento que você nunca fez. Ao entrar no jogo, você vai perder o controle inconscientemente e, após o encontro sedutor, você talvez comece a questionar: Qual é o lance desse macaco? Quem manipula quem?
Biography:
Ralph Kistler (1969, Munique/Alemanha) mora e trabalha em Munique e Tenerife (Espanha).
Ele se interessa pela observação dos fenômenos da sociedade atual tendo por referência aquilo que o cerca e sua vida pessoal, a fim de questionar situações cotidianas com obras de arte ambíguas e muitas vezes irônicas. Para criar suas instalações, ele trabalha com vídeo, eletrônica, interatividade e objetos cinéticos. Seus trabalhos participaram de exposições e festivais como o Piksel Festival em Bergen, o Transmediale em Berlim e o Japan Media Arts Festival em Tóquio.
Jan M. Sieber (1975, Heilbronn/Alemanha) mora e trabalha em Weimar (Alemanha). Ele é um artista e inventor cujas instalações com novas mídias e performances exploram os fenômenos, impactos, possibilidades e disfunções de interfaces multimodais de humanos e máquinas.
Em Weimar ele dirige o escritório de engenharia interactions.cc voltado a mídias interativas. Seus trabalhos e exposições com curadoria já foram mostrados na Alemanha, França, Espanha, Itália, Países Baixos, Japão e China.
Monito (2011, Guía de Isora/Espanha) mora em Weimar (Alemanha) e não precisa trabalhar.
Ele adora dançar e enganar as pessoas. Desde o lançamento de sua obra de sucesso “Who pulls the strings?”, ele passa a maior parte do tempo saindo com outros macacos ou pendurado em paredes mundo afora, só aprontando estripulias.
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source: pad-mainzde

Jan M. Sieber und Ralph Kistler Monkey Business

Freundlich grüßt der Elektro-Plüsch-Affe seinen Besucher und beginnt sogleich, dessen Bewegungen nachzuäffen. Der Affe lässt sich gern zu eleganten Gesten aber auch zu wildem Zappeln oder zu irren Verrenkungen animieren. Oder ist er es, der nach und nach sein Gegenüber zum Affen macht? Wer imitiert hier eigentlich wen?
Eine schlaue und hintergründige aber auch tierisch komische, preisgekrönte, technische Spielerei!
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source: me-magazineinfo

Heute geht es um “Monkey Business“, eine interaktive Installation von Ralph Kistler und Jan M. Sieber, in der ein Plüschaffe die Bewegungen der Betrachter nach”äfft”. Das Video zeigt das “Making Of” dieser ganz besonderen Installation, mit der die beiden Macher beim 15. Japan Media Arts Festival 2011 den “New Face Award” erhielten.

Die Konstruktion besteht aus einer Kamera zur Bewegungsaufzeichnung, einem Computer, um die von der Kamera ermittelten Daten zu verarbeiten, sowie zehn an einem Metallskelett im Inneren des Affen montierte Motoren, die die Bewegungen von Gliedmaßen, Kopf und Rumpf steuern. Monkey Business verwendet handelsübliche Hardware, wie sie bei jedem Elektronikhändler erhältlich ist, kostenlose Open Source Software – und einen für 1 Euro auf e-bay erhaschten Plüschaffen.