photos by Franz Wamhof
In the version of this work produced for the 1999–2000 exhibition "net_condition", there are two spaces. One space is nearly filled by a stage that is like a box or a large table, with a stepped roof that disappears into the ceiling of the room.
On this electrified stage is a robotic telepuppet (with a video camera and microphones in its head) looking a bit damaged – its head is bandaged and the body is wrapped up – a new form of one of the puppets from my earlier work "where I can see my house from here so we are" (1993–95).
The projected digital backdrop of this stage is inhabited by a floating head which is a software agent driven by artificial intelligence. Its role is that of an artificial actor with whom the telepuppet may converse; this agent provocateur understands spoken language and responds in a synthetic voice. It floats in and out of the shifting scenery, appearing as smoke, flames, historical figures, imaginary beings, or a frozen corpse, speaking in rhymes, alliteration, and seemingly prophetic fragments.
In another space, the telepuppet's point of view is projected large on a wall. In the center of this room is a small table out of which emerges a human skull. The skull is a force–feedback joystick that moves the telepuppet; when the puppet hits a boundary, one feels this in the joystick's resistance.
A visitor in this space has a microphone, and their voice is transmitted to the telepuppet, moving its mouth like a ventriloquist's doll. The two rooms (and four backstage computers) are networked locally, but could be anywhere in the world, connected through the Internet.
The 1999 exhibition of Séance Box No. 1 was an experiment during its development. It is not intended to be operated by the general public when complete; rather, the telepuppet performs in a specific role with a trained actor, while the artificial actor responds to designated cues, much like a scripted theatrical partner.
Text from the exhibition website:
http://on1.zkm.de/netCondition.root/netcondition/projects/project21/default_e
Séance Box No. 1 (work in progress): As if it might be a mediumistic being, this networked telepuppet performs on its stage at the whim of the one who moves it from a distance. The visitors are seen by this puppet–medium as they try to communicate with the ever–listening artificial actor, who floats in the projected world before them, speaking in riddles, rhymes, and drifting metaphors.
–kf 1999
exhibition history:
ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; "net_condition" 1999–2000
control interface; telepuppet
Credits
Title: "Séance Box No. 1 – work in progress"
Artist: Ken Feingold
Software Architecture and Direction: Ken Feingold
Software Development Assistance:
Visual programming and speech synthesis: Gideon May
Speech recognition: Adolf Mathias
Force–Feedback Joystick Server: Andreas Schiffler, Timo Fleisch
AI development: Ken Feingold, Boriana Koleva; some original functions based on code by Duane Fields
Embedded applications: Ken Feingold
Software testing and content implementation: Ken Feingold
Hardware developers: Ken Feingold, Joachim Hund, H. Carl Ott, Armin Steinke
Production Managers: Sally Jane Norman, Heike Staff
Some technologies developed in collaboration with ZKM Karlsruhe and i3Net / eRENA (European Network for Intelligent Information Interfaces)
Date: i3Net / ZKM project 1998–1999