For my second time around in OSU Art & Technology’s Robotics class, we went for a bit more of a challenge, using loose PIC chips instead of the Basic Stamp. We built our own circuits with sockets in them, then socketed microprocessors we programmed and “burned”.

The concept I was working with here is that due to fairly typical insecurities about my art, I get uncomfortable when people look at it, even in a gallery setting. The piece consists of a small box, painted the white of the gallery space. On this box is a title card with “Title Card” and my name on it. A few feet to either side of this box, mounted on the wall, are two small white objects about the size of matchbooks. Emerging from their tops are bright red puffballs on springs. If you approach the central box to examine the title card, the red puffballs on springs spin to get your attention. If you approach from the right, the left puffball (the one in your field of vision) spins and vice versa. The closer you get to the title card, the more quickly the balls spin, desperate for your attention.

The spinning balls were powered by tiny remote control car motors. Their controllers were wired directly to the PIC in the central box. When the ultrasonic sensors on the front sides of the box detected something in front of them, they signaled the appropriate remote unit over radio waves, triggering the spinning response. It was almost too easy to hack into the remote control mechanism. It felt like it shouldn’t have worked so nicely, but it did. Perhaps that’s because the tiny RC cars were just a few dollars a piece at Big Lots?

These videos were taken in-situ at the quarterly Art & Technology exhibition: