Ticklish Embrace
How can we include a sense of intimacy and playfulness into our artificial creature?
Reminiscence
Slowly, you closed your eyes.
Recall the past moment when you were standing under a spring willow tree.
The breeze gently moves its branches, pieces and pieces of leaves bristle past your skin, your hair, your eyelashes.
Radiant sunlight threads through interlaced branches,
forms illuminate flecks scattering on the grass.
Afar comes the sound of kids‘ harmless frolicking.
Alongside, it’s the sound of water and crickets every now and then.
This poem was composed by our team member Ou Zizhu’s memory of playing under willow trees when he was still a child. Our artificial creature ‘Ticklish Embrace’ was built upon his childhood experience. Among several actions we could think of, we focused on ‘tickling’ that creatures do to amplify social bonds.
Development
What is intimacy?
We divided the word ‘intimacy’ into three core conceptual subsets: Into – Me – See.
Into – open, inviting, something you enjoy.
Me- a subject absorbing the surroundings.
See – this is me, see me, all of me, here I am.
What is the connection between intimacy and the behaviour of tickling?
Each type of tickling implies different intentions. Throughout the project, we reflected on ourselves when being tickled or when we tickle others. We also asked others about their own tickling experiences. In the end, we drew out three values: warmth, intimacy, and being noticed. This tactfully constructs a bridge between intimacy and tickle.
How can we combine our artificial creature with a sense of intimacy from tickling?
Based on Zhu’s childhood experience as inspiration, we expanded our perspective on the relationship between nature (an overarching concept of creatures) and us. And this direction made us think of the choice of materials and the elements representing the creatureness vividly.
Exhibition
Like facing a willow tree, seeing it externally can hardly stir anything within; instead, only by stepping under, you can feel the embrace of nature. To emphasise the creatureness, our creature ‘Ticklish Embrace’ moves only when there are people nearby. Since intimacy is associated with personal emotion, we made an engaging flow with an enclosed environment where individuals can fully focus on the creature and their emotions.
To guarantee an immersive experience, the creature allows only one audience at a time. When the audience goes close to the creature, the light will turn on and the creature will move around him/her along with its own sound (presented as organic music). Through experience, audiences can interpret our creature ‘Ticklish Embrace’ from their own perspectives.