Terrain_01
'Terrain_01' (1994) is an interactive solar robot installation by Ulrike Gabriel and Bob O'Kane.
Ulrike Gabriel and Bob O'Kane: Terrain_01
Two users sit facing each other, wearing interfaces of a brainwave detection system on their heads. Between the two is a round glass table where the solar robots live. The brain waves of the users are measured, analyzed and compared. The alteration in wave patterns determine the speed, behavior and the terrain areas of activity. The movement of the robots will be lively if the users minds are calm.
Due to the different combinations of users and their inner response to each other, varying light patterns from top-down and bottom-up affect the terrain. The robot population begins to move in significant patterns of motion over the changing terrain area. The patterns are the interpretation of the two users' synergy, embodying subliminal tendencies: the more closely the brain wave frequencies of the users resemble each other, the more homogeneously the robot population moves, attaining a fluidity of motion and behavior over the entire robot terrain.
Terrain_01 was shown in the exhibition of DEAF94 in 1994.
