Fish-Bird Circle B – Movement B is an interactive installation that explores dialogical possibilities between two robots and their audience. The robotic objects are disguised as wheelchairs that impersonate two characters, Fish and Bird that they fall in love but due to ‘technical’ difficulties can not be together. Fish and Bird communicate intimately with one another, and with their visitors, via movement and text.

Fish and Bird learn the behaviour of audience participants, and reason independently to decide their actions. Their distinct personalities are expressed by their reactions to the audience.

The work employs a distributed and decentralised network of sensors to monitor the ‘body language’ of the wheelchairs and participants. Information is communicated wirelessly using the ‘WiFi’ and ‘Bluetooth’ standards. From frame and electronics to software, the robots are completely custom designed, engineered and built by the team.

Artist/Interface Design: Mari Velonaki

Robotic System Design: David Rye
Systems Architecture: Steve Scheding
Vision System: Stefan Williams

Lead programmer: James Hudson
Mechanical fabrication: Bruce Crundwell
Research and prototyping: Martin Edgren & Erik Wahlström, KTH, Stockholm