@heyhexx
2017 - present
@heyhexx is an interactive social media responsive robot puppet theatre installation. This theatre, designed to be viewed through social media platforms, acts as an intermediary between the digital and physical worlds. Emotions expressed through social media interactions are translated into puppet theatre through the animated form of Hexx the robot and HexxWorld.
People interact with Hexx the robot by sending it a tweet, which is analysed for the emotion contained within it. Hexx and its stage will display physical behaviours in response to this emotion in real-time. At the same time, a video is taken of Hexx and its stage, which is immediately sent to the original tweeter..By interacting with Hexx, people will be able to experience the emotive embeddings in their messages generating a new form of social media theatre. The project combines elements of puppet theatre, robotics, real-time interaction, and data analytics.
The Interaction System
Theatre
Hexx is maneuvered around the semi circular stage by a collaborative industrial robot arm. Circular shape provides first a proper shape for the robot arm to move Hexx around the city within its reach and second, easy accessibility for people to observe Hexx’s world from around the table.
The locations in the Hexx’s world mimic from the places our world, there are the park, city where he works and ocean where he like to go for a dip.
Origami and paper craft mechanic :
Puppetry, theatre, mechanics, and paper craft are the main elements of the concept. The set is comprised of dynamic origami structures that can move and be animated to display different emotive behaviours through the use of various mechanical techniques, such as motors and pulleys.
We made dynamic origami and other paper craft technique actuated with servo and motor to test on the movement to see the expression. Type of the paper, thickness and colour are the aspects of the quality of paper that we take into the consideration through the process.
For further development of the project, we would like to explore going beyond one to one interactions, and try to use @heyhexx as a tool for adding commentary to conversations happening on social media. We feel that this may bring about more possibilities for the use of @heyhexx, such as visualizing the emotions in the context of political debates.
We are so excited to announce that this coming Summer in 2019, we are going to exhibit at Prague Quadrennial the biggest Scenography festival in Czech Republic.
Check out Behine the scene of @heyhexx
︎ @heyhexx
︎ https://vimeo.com/heyhexx