A short play on the subject of paranoia.
Written in body language and performed by androids.
The Cast:
The Insecurity Men - three robots built to ensure human security but who are becoming uncertain about who are the dangerous and who are the vulnerable amongst the people they encounter.
The Set:
The room - the place the Insecurity Men are guarding. The environment is enriched with misleading sounds as the robots run on a continuous Moebius Loop behaviour programme that is affected by the presence of strangers.
The Plot:
Over time, the Insecurity Men begin to realise they are behaving like people and so start to mistrust each other. And as we humans enter the room, so we enter the play, alter its plot and re-arrange the pecking order.
A collaboration with, and from an original idea by, Forkbeard Fantasy, the amazing film and performance organisation
Technology
Engineering
The three life sized figures are constructed with a series of bearing joints. Eight model servo motors power and allow human like movement of the head, eyes and upper torso.
Control
A LanBox DMX control system in the chest of one figure runs a looped programme based on film of three performers exploring paranoid body language. DMX control cables link the other figures so they can all operate in concert.
The LanBox programme orchestrates the direction and speed of the movements the figures make, control the intensity of the LED eyes and trigger the sounds.
Interaction
Additionally a camera in the room is linked to motion detecting programme running in the Processing programme on a hidden computer. By way of an Arduino board triggering the LanBox, this interrupts the movement of visitors and causes the figures to react - or seem to.
Developments
This is a trial exhibition intended to explore interaction and soak test the mechanism. The exhibition uses frame differencing on the video feed and zones to apportion triggering.
Future developments may explore face recognition as a way for the figures to react to human movement in the space.
Penny Saunders Original idea, development, costume
Forkbeard Fantasy www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk
Chris Squire Development, technology, programming
Impossible Theatre www.impossible.org.uk
Pete Gunson Engineering
Pif-Paf www.pif-paf.co.uk
Spencer Roberts Interaction
Anthropo www.anthropo.org.uk/godot
Tim Britton Voice, source movement
Forkbeard Fantasy www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk
Chris Britton Source movement
Forkbeard Fantasy www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk
Robin Thornburn Source movement
Forkbeard Fantasy www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk
Charlott Diefenthal Support
Impossible Theatre www.impossible.org.uk
Initial research made possible by Animated Exeter and The Arts Council
