Googly Eyebot

August 13, 2008 7:56 PM

"Double-Taker (Snout)" by Golan Levin with Lawrence Hayhurst, Steven Benders and Fannie White "...deals in a whimsical manner with the themes of trans-species eye contact, gestural choreography, subjecthood, and autonomous surveillance. The project consists of an eight-foot (2.5m) long industrial robot arm, costumed to resemble an enormous inchworm or elephant's trunk, which responds in unexpected ways to the presence and movements of people in its vicinity...." Googly Eyebot. (via)

Golan Levin's Double-Taker (Snout) Flickr set. And his Opto-Isolator is keeping track of things, too....

posted by Kronos_to_Earth (3 comments total)

It's a cute idea but it doesn't live up to the rather grandiose writeup quoted in the FPP, in my opinion. Most of the people walking in the door don't even seem to notice it, and the rest just wave hello without stopping to interact.

Maybe if it were installed somewhere else people would play with it a little? It has a certain plaintive curiosity in its "body language" but nobody wants to be its friend. I think it's lonely up there on the roof!
posted by Quietgal at 8:51 PM on August 13, 2008

Oh my god. It's adorable. I'm actually pretty surprised with how well they've programmed in the 'body language' bit. But I think I agree with Quietgal's mention that no one really seems all that interested. Maybe it is the location. Maybe we need more videos.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:49 AM on August 14, 2008

Are you sure this guy hasn't really invented a cloaking device? I mean, how else do you explain the almost complete and utter indifference with which most of the people shown in the videos fail to react to THE GIANT BLACK WIGGLY THING ON THE ROOF?

Which, come to think of it, would make a pretty good name for a Metafilter sock-puppet account ..
posted by kcds at 10:20 AM on August 14, 2008