teo park controls the movement of a water tank with his hand

teo park controls the movement of a water tank with his hand
all images courtesy of teo park

 
what looks like a clip from the famed star wars series — where a jedi’s force powers send objects soaring through space — is the interactive kinetic sculpture by seoul-based artist teo park. controlled by hand and activated by the audience, ‘may the force be with you’ changes the direction in gravitational pull of a half-filled tank of water, swaying it hypnotically back and forth with just the flick of a wrist. the movement is determined by a signal sent from kinect, a motion sensing input device. the data received by the motor and link arm translate the indicator to mechanical movements, which in turn command the specific angle and route of the water volume in real time. ‘it is hard to comprehend how powerful our actions can be.’ explains park, referencing his emotions after being discriminated against ‘we need to realize that an action has the power to be delivered and have psychological impacts, as well as physical impacts. this is the message I wanted to deliver to the audience through this project using one of the most familiar force, gravity.’

the installation is activated by audience movement

light projects the image of the water tank, which is controlled by movements from the hand

the installation takes place

the gravitational pull of the water tank is manipulated

the mechanisms translate the hand signal into data to control the angle of the tank in real time