Clever interactive street art makes people look like marionettes controlled by giant hands

I posted a few days about Toc de Fusta's interactive street installation in Catalan city of Verdú. Recently, another group in the area known as Itinerania also did an installation of interactive kinetic art called Titeretú.

The installation consists of five giant hands. An audience member uses the controls attached to one of the hands to play a small mechanical game mounted to the hand's platform. Meanwhile, the giant hand above moves as if controlling the person like a marionette. The clever installation forces us to question who is controlling who. Is the hand controlling the person? Is the person controlling the game? Is the game, ultimately, controlling the hand? It all depends on your point of view. [ Thanks Alfred ]

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Mechanical version of the Donkey Kong arcade game

We've seen some interesting stuff here on The Automata Blog recently including a Lego assembly line, a paper robot that can walk, a working bicycle made of cardboard, and a greeting card that give you the thumbs up. Let's keep the awesome going with this mechanical/tangible version of the arcade game Donkey Kong made by M.S. Raynsford.

This is a simplified version of the full plan. Pretty incredible for a first version! The game is made almost entirely from laser cut (and decorated) parts. In this version, Mario jumps (via servo motor) over rolling ball bearings that run down actual ramps.

From the video description:

Built as part of a larger project this was my first attempt at a mechanical version of Donkey Kong. Time constraints meant I had to drop the XY CNC controller but hopefully explains why this is only V1. All the construction files and details can be found on my website MSRaynsford.co.uk

We can expect the fully functioning version at the UK Maker Faire, 2013. I can't wait!

Learn more about and see additional images of this mechanical Mario Brothers game on M. S. Raynsford's blog.

[ Thanks Julia! ]

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