OVERVIEW
Flawed Distinction is, instead of the promise of technology's infinite potential, a specific restriction as a simulation of technology. It asks the question, "How do we relate to technology?" This piece is a demonstration of the relationship between humans and technology. To demonstrate this, a machine's gesture in physical reality is connected to the movement of the participant's gestures in virtual reality. These movements of the participant drawing in the virtual space are brought to the physical realm by the machine through drawings. In virtual reality, there are no restrictions, and the participants can draw in three dimensions. However, the robot in physical reality is restricted to two dimensions.
This project was a collaboration with Onix Manuel Nieves-Vanga and Crispin Suminski. Onix Nieves-Vanga created the concept and built the hardware, Crispin Suminski coded, and I created the VR space.
Working with Onix Manuel Nieves-Vanga and Crispin Suminski, Flawed Distinction is an art piece that seeks to demonstrate the relationship between human and technology. Using a Braccio Arduino Arm and Unity, we created an interactive art piece that allows participants to draw in virtual reality. While the participant is drawing, the Braccio Arduino Arm is replicating the participant's gestures while drawing on paper. When the participant is finished, the participant can take off the headset and see the drawing the robot has made on the paper. Because the participant had no limitations in the virtual reality space, their movements could not be replicated by the robot, which was limited to the space it was given. These limitations arose due to the robot having a restricted field of movement, latency from the movement of the participant being relayed to the robot, and the inability to replicate the three-dimensional drawings on a two-dimensional piece of paper. Therefore, the virtual and physical perspectives are not one-to-one. This demonstrates that although humanity has unrestricted aspirations for technology's capabilities in theory, there are limitations in practice.
Keywords: Human-technological relations, robotics, virtual reality, participatory role, gesture
Programs Used: Unity, Adrino
References Used: https://github.com/tanyuan/braccio-ik-unity
Personal contributions: creating the drawing tool used in Unity
Exhibited at:
2022- Flawed Distinction, Paris College of Art Gallery, Paris, France.
This project was a collaboration with Onix Manuel Nieves-Vanga and Crispin Suminski. Onix Nieves-Vanga created the concept and built the hardware, Crispin Suminski coded, and I created the VR space.
Working with Onix Manuel Nieves-Vanga and Crispin Suminski, Flawed Distinction is an art piece that seeks to demonstrate the relationship between human and technology. Using a Braccio Arduino Arm and Unity, we created an interactive art piece that allows participants to draw in virtual reality. While the participant is drawing, the Braccio Arduino Arm is replicating the participant's gestures while drawing on paper. When the participant is finished, the participant can take off the headset and see the drawing the robot has made on the paper. Because the participant had no limitations in the virtual reality space, their movements could not be replicated by the robot, which was limited to the space it was given. These limitations arose due to the robot having a restricted field of movement, latency from the movement of the participant being relayed to the robot, and the inability to replicate the three-dimensional drawings on a two-dimensional piece of paper. Therefore, the virtual and physical perspectives are not one-to-one. This demonstrates that although humanity has unrestricted aspirations for technology's capabilities in theory, there are limitations in practice.
Keywords: Human-technological relations, robotics, virtual reality, participatory role, gesture
Programs Used: Unity, Adrino
References Used: https://github.com/tanyuan/braccio-ik-unity
Personal contributions: creating the drawing tool used in Unity
Exhibited at:
2022- Flawed Distinction, Paris College of Art Gallery, Paris, France.
REFERENCES
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To have a direct link to the Braccio and Unity, we utilized the code created by Tanyaun on Github.
https://github.com/tanyuan/braccio-ik-unity |
Tanyaun. Unity Screen Capture. Unity.
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PROCESS
Mealer. Prototype testing.
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To create a simple drawing brush in VR, I took the original code for the SteamVR_TestThrow and modified it. This original code spawns one sphere that is affected by physics. I modified it to where upon triggering the controller, it will spawn a sphere from the point of which the trigger was pressed and can continue to spawn spheres continously when the trigger is held down.
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The virtual space in Unity is dome shaped to create the illusion of a large open space without needing a large open space. The dome is a dark blue to be simulate a chalkboard. If the wall was solid black, then the space felt like a void instead of a canvas. The brush strokes are white to simulate chalk. This is similar to the referenced VR Drawing program, Tilt Brush, that has a dark environment and default white brush. I also added instructions that disappear after 15 seconds so that the participant knows how to draw in the space.
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Mealer. Basic Unity scene of the project. Unity.
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Mealer. Photo of workshop.
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We ran a small workshop to see how people draw when given specific prompts, as we wanted to give a vague enough prompt in the virtual reality space where it would be less likely for people to draw the same thing. We also experiemented with providing specific parameters, such as specifying to the participants to not include letters.
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EXHIBITION
Mealer. Video from exhibition.
Nieves-Vanga. Photos of images created during the 3 hours of the exhibition.
Nieves-Vanga. Photos of images created during the 3 hours of the exhibition.