Starring a CNC plotter moving a spherical metal scribe, The Machine Among Us was the first installation designed to achieve the uncanny. These earlier feeling of presence (FoP) experiments follow a similar formula: The visitor’s location and movements are monitored by a tracking device such as a digital camera or a Kinect sensor. Converting these data into spatial coordinates, the computer would calculate a specific function corresponding to the visitor trajectory. Visual and auditory feedback is then created by the use of a CNC plotter, affecting a layer of physical material with forces like magnetic energy or wind power.
This project also raises questions about the human-machine relationship in our society. In the past, restricted machine intelligence and insufficient human-machine interaction often placed machines into less autonomous roles such as that of a servant. Now with the rapid advancement of technologies and the emergence of research like deep learning, we have hereby entered an era that requires more imagination. This installation probes a possible future where we face a new breed of machines that will exist alongside us, instead of inferior to us.