FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Design

Control a Robotic Wing with Your Ear in Germany

Moscow-based hacker artist ::vtol:: (a.k.a. Dmitry Morozov) creates the ear-controlled future of body-hacking.
Images courtesy of the artist

Humans are already hacking their bodies to implant art under their skin, hear color and, feel earth’s vibrations. But what if we eventually go much further than these early forays into cybernetics? What if in the future we give ourselves appendages likes wings or tails?

This is what Moscow-based hacker artist ::vtol:: (a.k.a. Dmitry Morozov) imagines with wing, a roboticized interactive object and installation that resembles a bird’s wing.

Advertisement

Commissioned by the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe for this year’s GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution exhibition, wing is suspended 10 to 13 feet from the ceiling with a wingspan measuring over 8 feet in width. As impressive as this is, what Morozov’s interactive robot wing can do is even more mind-bending.

::vtol:: wing from ::vtol:: on Vimeo.

A thin cable hangs from wing, the end of which is outfitted with dermal miographic sensors that measure the electrical potential of muscles. Visitors can “install” these sensors on their heads just behind the ear.

“Moving his/her ears, the visitor may direct the movements of the wing robot which hangs above,” Morozov explains. “Only by rhythmical and complete movements one may achieve the full swing of the wing.”

Courtesy of the artist

“The main idea of the project is an ironical and at the same time serious research on the topic of development of new instruments and prostheses as ‘extensions’ of human body and accordingly its possibilities and potentials, which are being revealed by new technologies,” Morozov continues. “At the same time, it's an attempt to stimulate people to perceive and train the body in a different way, expanding the limits of self-control and self-organization in order to adapt to the new conditions.”

Courtesy of the artist

Morozov also likens the experience to spiritual practices that are aimed at the “elevation of human soul through deep relaxation and control over seemingly uncontrollable muscles, this project uses the metaphor of flying as a reward for the ability to direct your mind to solving of non-standard tasks.”

Advertisement

Click here for more from ::vtol::.

Related:

Hear a Synthesizer Generate Sound from a Pyrite Disc

This Musical Instrument Tracks Cryptocurrencies in Real Time

Hear Haunting Music Made by Slowly-Crushed Toys and Smartphones