This is an accidental piece that happened one afternoon. It is part of an idea that I have been working on for twenty years, but have not yet found it’s best manifestation in art.
The idea is this: five objects are assemble in a circle so that they are in conversation. Here it is just implied. In Second Life I tried to do this with five boulders that you would stumble upon while taking a walk in Aman Turas. But in this case you actually heard them talking. This is where I first started thinking about creating a virtual theater.
I tried this again with five giant Hershey’s Kisses. Here the idea was expanded into the creation of a theatrical performance, that could be programmed from the Internet.’s
Here are excerpts from an unfunded proposal:
THE EXPERIENCE
Imagine you are in a downtown building lobby, people coming and going, a bank of elevators to your left, and straight ahead is something that looks like “modern art.” At first glance the art looks like five large multi-colored Hershey’s Kisses. You head for the elevators when you hear a tantalizing whisper coming from one of the Kisses. You stop. There it is again, the whisper. You turn and this time it moves and points at you. You can’t help it. You have to see for yourself, so you cautiously walk over to these five strange objects.
They are at least as tall as you; all huddled around in a circle. No, they are not talking to you, but they are talking to each other. The conversation is peculiar, definitely not idle small talk. Then it dawns on you that you are witnessing a play and you settle in to listen.
HOW IT WORKS
The Five Intelligent Kisses will be a mobile theater installation. The operation of the characters (the Kisses) is controlled via a website. Writers are invited to create plays by entering text into web forms. They pick a character, enter the dialog and choose from a variety of simple movements.
SKIN – The skin of the five characters will need to be made out of a flexible yet durable material that can function over a robotic mechanism. We will need to source expertise in flexible material fabrication.
MOVING PARTS – This project requires only rudimentary movements, like twisting of the body and turning of the curly top, which will require professional engineering to create a reliable motion machine. We will need to engineer/build the five movement machines.
ELECTRONICS – Each character will need its own electronic system providing two functions:
- Make It Move – This involves a microcontroller connected to industrial servos and programming.
- Make It Talk – Speech will be implemented with a text-to-speech engine and speakers.