TECHNICAL
a mobile wifi installation
Baby Love is a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size (160 diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall). The teacup modelled after the spinning teacup of the old-time playground is designed into an auto-spinning unit. The teacup made in light-weight, anti-corrosive FRP (Fiber Glass Reinforced Plastics), is equipped with two motors (320 watts each unit),
, spinning wheels and electronic sensor system for the speed control and direction maneuver. On each of the teacup, a hand-made clone baby in silicon rubber. The baby, adorned with a locker key, a LED display with locker numbers running, is installed with a baby machine (a mac-mini with 802.11 wifi) that serves as sound-processing unit.
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Riding the teacups
Baby Love invites the public to upload mp3 love songs for baby's ME-data. Through the web interface and on site card reader
(reads from i-pod, mp3 player or any memory cards), the uploaded mp3 files are recoded for ME-database and retrieved by baby machine via wireless network. Upon receiving the data, the mp3 file is analyzed and segments looped for repeated learning. The spinning teacup is its auto and manual modes further interacts with the baby's sound processing. The teacup in auto mode is in a perpetual self-spin. The public invited to ride the teacup can set the teacup movement in manual mode. The turning of wheel (left and right) and the changing of speed (1,2,3), while spinning forward and backward the teacup, also shuffle (via sensor data that detect and transmit the movement) the mp3 files back and forth and in various speed. Like a DJ's scratch of an LP, the altered soundscape
(written in MaxSP/jitter) is generated by human and baby interaction as teacup spins.
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The crash
The teacup's bottom plate (178cm diameter) is inflated with a layer of silicon tube enclosing a circular strip of contact bumper.
When the two teacups bump into each other, the bumper sensor detects the crash moment and sends signal (via wifi 802.11) to the
web server and baby machine. Upon the crash, the babies swap mp3 files and reproduce the baby's own remix. The crash data
is recorded and remixed mp3 streamed on the web.
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