I came up with this idea when considering what kind of inputs a performer could give to a robot to make it a human-robot performance. A performer could give direct commands or can have some aspect of their own choices be interpreted by the robot. I think an interesting take on this would be a robot that responds to the voice. My final idea is sort of a sentient microphone.
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The performer would stand behind the microphone stand and speak something like a poem or a passage of a book or a monologue. As the speaker’s volume or pitch changes, 4 arms would move about to create a sort of moving, breathing mask for the performer.
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This sketch represents some of the states of the living microphone. Connected in between the arms would be fabrics which could be seen depending on how the arms are positioned.
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This sketch represents how this could be built with 4 stepper motors mounted onto a microphone stand with 4 lightweight arms on the stepper motors.
I think this idea demonstrates some really interesting ideas about the nature of performing and speaking in front of people.