Would You Date A Duck?

Milan Metthey is looking to breach the gap between the human and animal species and is doing so by conducting a series of experiments with the goal to integrate himself into a duck’s world, and possibly even develop a personal relationship with the animal. Why a duck? In an interview with We Make Money Not Art, he says the semi-wild animal is a good choice because they are easy to find in cities, and because of their non-domestic nature, they don’t have an innate inferiority to humans that a cat or dog may have.

In his first experiment (above) he used 3D modeling software to scan his face and morphed the image onto the visage of a radio-controlled Mallard duck. Metthey then proceeded to visit his local pond and flirt with a female duck by mimicking their mating ritual.

In the second experiment, he dressed up as a duck, recorded himself “quacking about”, and projected the video in the presence of the duck to further charm the object if his new-found affection.

For the third experiment, he went all out and invited the female duck to dine with him at his apartment. By rigging the Mallard model to his fork, every time Metthey brought the utensil to his mouth, his robotic duck counterpart dipped its beak into the scattered grain on the floor, even encouraging the female duck to do the same.

While conducting experiments of this kind may seem downright bizarre to some, we do wonder about what technology could do to enhance the communication between humans and animals in the future. Such tools could have profound impact for people in the animal care field like veterinarians, zoo caretakers, and even people who use service animals—not to mention, it could probably help strengthen the bond between you and Fido. While the Love Ducking experiments only dabbled in discovering if a duck could recognize and interact with a human-controlled model, further advancements could see the robotic duck being able to deliver certain body language and familiar comfort that humans just don’t have the ability to enact. Milan Metthey might be on to something, but rest assured, he upholds that his relationship with the female duck he used in his experiments is “strictly professional.” Read more insight from Metthey at We Make Money Not Art.

On a similarly light-hearted though less-controversial level, Matthey’s robotic duck reminded us of a related project from upcoming Creator Taeyoon Choi. Choi, a NYC and Seoul-based multi-media and performance artist/cultural organizer, made a duck model of his own, but instead of trying to dip into the animal species, he decided to play with humans instead—who proved to be much more reactionary. In the video below, the duck model is wired to snap a photo of anyone who’s waving a flashbulb in its face, maybe making camera-happy people realize that animals are self-conscious and sensitive beings (would you want cameras in your face 24/7 just because you were a cute duckling?). There’s no doubt that ducks, as well as other animals, are smart. It’s only because we don’t have the tools to communicate with them that we don’t know how much.

Watch Taeyoon’s other videos on his Vimeo channel, and stay tuned for his Creator profile coming soon.