Both of the projects I’m going to post about this week were
created by artist duo Soren Pors and Aparna Rao who are based in Bangalore,
India.
Heavy Hat
Materials: Fiber glass, nylon, metal, electro-mechanical
components
Heavy Hat is a
sculpture of a man balanced upside-down on his heavy hat. In the presence of
humans, Heavy Hat begins to sway back
and forth in an unpredictable manner. In order to engage spectators, the
sculpture dips down low, appearing to be falling, and hopefully, people will
instinctively reach out to catch it, though the sculpture is designed to always
keep its balance.
I love that Heavy Hat takes advantage of people’s
instinctual behavior. People interact with the sculpture not really because
they want to, but because they almost have to.
Pygmies
Materials: Plastic, metal, wood, electro-mechanical
components
Pygmies consists
of 25 panels behind which over 500 small black “pygmies” live. The Pygmies are sensitive to sound, hiding
when it is loud and slowing peeking out from behind the panel when it is quiet.
The Pygmies were designed to be
lifelike so they adjust to ambient noise and all behave slightly differently
from each other.
I think Pors & Rao did a very good job at making Pygmies seem lifelike. Their smallness
and timidity make them very cute and likeable, and it doesn’t surprise me that people
who saw this treated them playfully and like real creatures.
Go to 4:45 for Heavy
Hat and 1:50 for Pygmies. If you
watch the rest you
can see 6 more of Pors & Rao’s works from their show
Applied Fiction.
(Source)
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