Organic Empathy

FINALIST of Open Source Biennale

+ FINALIST

Open Source Biennale

[13160]

Organic Empathy: An amorphous creature has grown up in a cage.

Team

Name: Sergio Cabanyes de Benito

Instagram: @sergiocabanyes

Nationality: Spanish

Name: Nuria González Hernani

Instagram: @nuriahernani

Nationality: Spanish

An amorphous, pitiful creature is displayed for the public locked in a cage. The creature is unable to hear, taste or smell, but although their sight is also bad, it can see the color red. With this project, we are trying to reach the public’s empathy by giving them the choice of making this pitiful creature happy by bringing a red flower closer to the creature. By doing so, a webcam will process the video feed in real time and detect only the color red, showing the public the resulted video in a bigger screen so they can understand how the creature understands the world. Once the flower is close enough, and so the red zone is big enough to surpass a size filter, the being will show their affection by moving their back thanks to several servomotors connected to an Arduino.

Jury Comments

– [Hamidreza Khademi] Unique and highly interactive concept. The use of Arduino and video processing adds technical complexity. The main challenges are in creating a convincing “creature” and ensuring the reliable operation of the interactive elements.

– [m2ft architects] The production of an artificial ‘being’ that interacts with users is now a well-known practice. The proposal, however, possesses something extremely critical and introspective in being an entity imprisoned in well-defined boundaries, which is only activated by an absolutely superficial interaction with users. An allegory of the current condition?

– [Olli Andrew] very dull idea, like something from a science museum.