LO 2 – generative art : “Please Smile”

When researching generative art, I stumbled upon a piece titled “Please Smile” it is a robotic installation done in 2011 by artist Hye Yeon Nam and the robotics were done by Changhyun Choi along with assistant programmer Sam Mendenhall.
I was instantly drawn to the piece as the concept is very intriguing. The exhibit consists of five robotic skeleton arms which are designed to interact with humans in three different ways. First if no human is in view of the camera the robotic arms stay in the default position if a human comes in view the arms are designed to point at the human following the person if he or she were to move. Finally the third way is if the person were to smile the robot would then wave with all five arms.
The piece sounds simple but, with my knowledge of robotics, it is not the easiest thing to program. I’m very inspired by not only the thought process behind the art but also the execution. The video I watched about this piece showed the robot running very smoothly which must have required a sound program.
There is a clear indication of time effort and creativity that went into this piece making it not only cool to look at but also interactive.
It is clear that the artist had a definite vision going into the project and worked alongside others to make her idea reality.