[engadget] Self-Portrait Machine binds your hands then bends your will - Overclock.net

spice003 · 07-03-09

Quote:

Drawing faces is hard; and as children suckled at the teat of MTV we posses neither the patience nor the discipline required to learn the skill. So imagine our surprise to discover the Self-Portrait Machine, a device that snaps your photo and then forces you to draw your own face by dragging your bound hands around until the portrait is complete. Jen Hui Liao's project is the result of an observation that "our personal identities are represented by the products of the man-machine relationship." So it's like art and the intersection of philosophy... only it's not -- it's just a robot too lazy to make the portrait itself. See the video after the break.

YouTube - public test close-up

source

hyponerve · 07-03-09

somehow i dont think this will catch on...lol

hackm0d · 07-03-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyponerve

somehow i dont think this will catch on...lol

agreed.

Madman340 · 07-03-09

You paid $XXX to make a robot control you.

Afrodisiac · 07-03-09

I would like to fight this machine. I would probably win.

el gappo · 07-03-09

can you tell what it is yet?
is this meant to teach people how to draw or something? seem pointless, just like some over engineerd cad cam with a pen. they should make one that forces people to dance like mc hammer you know something usefull like that

AntiTalent · 07-03-09

It's from the Royal College of Art show in London.

Personally I think it's a cool thing to have at an art & design show, Waaay better then just wandering around staring at stuff, and I'm assuming you can have a go and take home a souvenir

If you follow the link in the source you can find segments of the artist's blurb about it. How much you want to buy into it as a conceptual piece and how much as just a cool thing to build is up to you. I think it's pretty cool, and the odd switcheroo of having a machine controlling you instead of the reverse is bizarre.

Afrodisiac · 07-03-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by AntiTalent

It's from the Royal College of Art show in London.

Personally I think it's a cool thing to have at an art & design show, Waaay better then just wandering around staring at stuff, and I'm assuming you can have a go and take home a souvenir

If you follow the link in the source you can find segments of the artist's blurb about it. How much you want to buy into it as a conceptual piece and how much as just a cool thing to build is up to you. I think it's pretty cool, and the odd switcheroo of having a machine controlling you instead of the reverse is bizarre.

And this is how a Skynet-like scenario will occur.

"Yo dude, check this out, I'ma let this computer control the military!"

"Yo HAHAHA dude that would be so sick, let's see what it does!"

"Um... dude... we're fuc-*machines destroy earth*