We wanted to acknowledge the materials and hardware involved in the creation of the piece – our figure acknowledges that he has limited articulation and programming available to interact with the world. The inspiration came from Attachment theory in psychology, specifically the ‘disorganized’ or ‘insecure attachment style’ – he is attached with strings to his cage, but only some of them hold him still, others allow him to react, but not in a healthy or expected way.
This being is insecurely attached. He has been wounded, and he’s not entirely in control of his ability to express himself – he is pulled in many directions, with bits left hanging and one foot off the ground, and what little agency he does have is only in reacting to others.
There is a concept in psychology called attachment theory – that our ability to respond to each other is governed by simple programming. Inconsistent affection, discipline, and security in childhood cause adult reactions that are impulsive, unpredictable, and unhealthy. Having had our trust broken in the past, we regard any affection with distrust and avoidance. Meanwhile, we find ourselves unwittingly rewarding cruelty and disapproval by trying to “win” people back, suddenly overcompensating with anxious displays of affection. These backward responses then develop a feedback loop between individuals and trap them in cycles of misunderstanding.
But do these theories just boil a whole human being down into a broken input-output machine? How simple or complex our inner worlds might be is irrelevant when even the most logical conditionals can generate the most befuddling interactions. We can’t see the internal processes of other people, we can only treat each other with as much grace as we can articulate.
His body and cage are designed from a combination of different gauges of wire and string,
depending on the weight needed to create charming movement and visual
contrast desired, blackened to create the illusion both he and his cage
are created from a single substance.
We continued the strings in the form of black tape
into the playspace, indicating that both the figure and the user are
trapped by the same limitations, and to indicate where the best place to
stand is.
The black base supporting the cage and figure was laser cut from black acrylic to continue the black substance motif, and to contain the webcam, Arduino, and servos. Two 180° servos were used to articulate his poses. His torso is separate from the rest of his body, and connected to a servo in the base, so he can turn his upper body while his legs stay facing forward. The figures’ shoulder and elbow joints are articulated with string so they can swing gently when returning to idle, and bend when pulled by the second servo that adjusts the position of his left arm. The webcam in the base captures the users’ movements, which are tracked in P5 using the ML5 library, comparing the position of different body points to recognize different specific poses. The figure reacts to three specific poses.
- Hug
When the figure is offered a hug, he will reject it, turning away and raising his hand to ask the user to stop.
- Wave
When the figure is waved at, he will turn to look behind himself, completely ignoring the gesture.
- Crossed Arms
When the user shows disapproval by crossing their arms, the figure will reach out for a high five to please you.
Interaction Video:
Project Context:
This is a wire sculpture made by Polish-born Australian artist Barbara Licha. She is interested in the complexity of the human condition and explores parallels between actual people and the ones in her imagination. In her work, Licha tries to convey what she sees inside people: their wishes, dreams, and desires. We are inspired by the powerlessness of these figures and want to learn how to show our puppet trapped in its mind cage.
Fiona Morley creates beautiful wire figures with organic forms that are full of personality, creating the illusion of a two-dimensional sketch coming into the third dimension, using different gauges of jewelry wire to create contrast and the appearance of graphite shading. She has an eye for the second layer of illustration created by light and shadow through the figures. Her use of wire to convey characterization and form was an inspiration for our character design and material selection – something lightweight that would not strain the servos but would allow control over form and expressivity with organic variation.
Developed by John Bowlby in the 1950s and expanded on by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s, Attachment theory codifies how the bonds we build in our relationships, especially in early childhood with caregivers, impact our ability to communicate and nurture future attachments throughout our lives. This theory was famously explored in Harry Harlow’s famous “Wire Mother” experiment, in which young monkeys were raised by both a cloth mother, who gave comfort only, and a wire mother, who gave milk but no comfort. He learned (somewhat unethically) that the monkeys would choose comfort whenever possible.
Four patterns of attachment were codified, one being the Insecure or Disorganized attachment style, in which a person receives inconsistent support from caregivers, and so alienates those who try to connect with them by swinging between being overbearing or aloof, seemingly at random. Attachment theory comes to mind when searching for answers when something does not behave as expected, and this informed the direction of our concept, and the anthropomorphization of our figure.
Circuit Diagram:
The servos are connected to two ports and receive data from the computer via the Arduino.
Final Code:
Detects the player’s three poses and adjusts the movement of a puppet to react.
Resources from:
Key Features:
- ML5 body pose detection with MoveNet
- Flexible servo range configuration
- Action detection and visual Feedback
- * We did not make any changes to the Arduino code provided.
System Diagram:
