All art attempts to project emotion, but certain art has another more human quality that is just subtle enough. Pareidolia is the effect we experience when we think that we see a face in a could formation. The quote below by David Hume, an 18th Century Philosopher, explains it beautifully:
"There is a universal tendency among mankind to conceive of all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualitites, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us".
I am looking for this kind of emotive art as inspiration for my sculpture, as I want it to have certain qualities that make you feel companionship without going too much into anthropomorphism and staying far away from the Uncanny Valley. Below are a few examples that I find particularly relevant to my design.
Adam Ben-Dror | www.ben-dror.com | @adambendror Shanshan Zhou | www.behance.net/sszhou www.ben-dror.com/pinokio/ Pinokio is an exploration into the expressive and behavioural potentials of robotic computing. Customized computer code and electronic circuit design imbues Pinokio with the ability to be aware of its environment, especially people, and to expresses a dynamic range of behaviour. As it negotiates its world, we the human audience can see that Lamp shares many traits possessed by animals, generating a range of emotional sympathies. In the end we may ask: Is Pinokio only a lamp? – a useful machine? Perhaps we should put the book aside and meet a new friend. Processing, Arduino, and OpenCV. New Zealand Best Awards - Interactive Category - Gold | 2013 Click Suite Prize for Innovation and Excellence in Media Design - Winner | 2012 Joss Doggett - Asistant Music "Do You See Me?" by Jared C. Balogh | www.alteredstateofmine.net
Zimoun Sound Architectures, Sculptures & Installations Compilation Video V.3.3 / August 24, 2014 Using simple and functional components, Zimoun builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, his installations incorporate commonplace industrial objects. In an obsessive display of simple and functional materials, these works articulate a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. Carrying an emotional depth, the acoustic hum of natural phenomena in Zimoun's minimalist constructions effortlessly reverberates. More works & information: http://www.zimoun.ch Next Events: http://zimoun.ch/events.html Newsletter: http://www.zimoun.ch/ewsletter.html Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimoun/134817185765 HD Video Archive: http://vimeo.com/zimoun/videos/sort:plays _ «The sound sculptures and installations of Zimoun are graceful, mechanized works of playful poetry, their structural simplicity opens like an industrial bloom to reveal a complex and intricate series of relationships, an ongoing interplay between the «artificial» and the «organic». It‘s an artistic research of simple and elegant systems to generate and study complex behaviors in sound and motion. Zimoun creates sound pieces from basic components, often using multiples of the same prepared mechanical elements to examine the creation and degeneration of patterns.» Tim Beck «Zimoun is best compared to a watchmaker of a self-reproducing time constructing his own gauging station.» Radjo Monk «The clean, elegant sound sculptures combine visual, sonic, and spatial elements in an organically balanced entirely artwork. Using simple and well- conceived mechanical systems, Zimouns‘s work transforms and activates the space.» Jury Prix Ars Electronica 2010 «Zimoun creates complex kinetic sound sculptures by arranging industrially produced parts according to seemingly simple rules. Using motors, wires, ventilators, etc.., he creates closed systems that develop their own behavior and rules similarly to artificial creatures. Once running, they are left to themselves and go through an indeterminable process of (de)generation. These quasi autonomous creatures exist in an absolutely synthetic sphere of lifeless matter. However, within the precise, determinist systems creative categorioes suddenly reappear, such as deviation, refusal and transcience out of which complex patterns of behavior evolve.» Node10 «It is a poetic and humorous absurdity we find in Zimoun’s work, which opens up a wide, refreshing and enriching space for discoveries, associations and a multitude of approaches.» Nina Terry «The components used in Zimoun’s work are simple, functional and raw, whereas only aesthetically high-level and purposefully chosen elements and materials are used in minimalist fashion. Through radical reduction, Zimoun creates works of art which allow for a plethora of associations without being pinned down to a specific direction. Radical abstraction functions rather like a code in the background of things, thus elegantly avoiding an insinuation of direct, concrete attribution. Thanks to the abundance of mechanical activity, the range of perception, possibilities and interpretations is wide open.» Amanda Neumann «Indeed, one of the refreshing elements of this work is the immediacy with which one can understand the sound-making process, where each micro-event is present, visible, and concrete. Yet at the same time the resulting complexity of the total system, conjured before your eyes, defies any attempt to dissect it. You might find yourself feeling there is a «prime mover» at work behind the scenes, but in fact it is just the characteristic reaction of materials behaving together and in unison with the space of their activity. A magic of the real.» Xymara _ Website: http://www.zimoun.ch _
