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Alice Grama, Emile Velthuis and Paul Hulsebosch
noc noc is a mysterious creature. We don’t know how it looks, we don’t know how it sounds. The only thing we know for sure is that it is very curious about us, just as we are about it. We catch a glimpse of it peeking at us through a keyhole and before we know it, it’s gone.
Curiosity is a complex element of creatureness, a cocktail of excitement, wonder, hopefulness, restlessness and anxiety. It's the feeling we get when there's an unexpected knock on the door and we take a peek through the peephole to see who's out there. It's the new colleague on their first day we observe from a distance before getting to know them. It's the automatic 'Who's there?' question we ask when someone initiates a Knock-Knock joke. We always want to know what's waiting for us on the other side.
When we first started brainstorming ideas for elements of creatureness, we were rather intrigued by superstition, and our definition of it revolved around the human desire to predict the unpredictable, to explain uncertainty. A couple of trial and errors and prototypes of superstitious creatures made us realise we were rather interested in what precedes superstition - the moment of not knowing what will happen in the future. We dug in deeper in this human urge to look for signs, to (symbolically) peek through a peephole into the future. This pointed us not towards superstition itself, but towards a broader human quality - curiosity. So, we changed our initial idea. Instead of designing a creature that performs superstitious rituals like avoiding walking under ladders, avoiding broken mirrors or straightening up a horseshoe, we asked ourselves: what is curiosity? And what is the best way to portray this element of creatureness?
IMG_0630.MOVInspiration
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Who is that, who is there, what does it do, why does he shy away, what is he hiding, why is he peeking, does he have a secret, is he afraid of the open or doesn't he just want to show himself. Sparking these questions with a single human quality: curiousity. Ennio Morricone's picture was one of the pictures we took inspiration from for our project.
This bot that retreats from light is a source of inspiration for noc noc's reaction to sensing someone looking at it. We tested out various reaction times to best communicate our creature's surprise and withdrawl.
Curiosity
Our project can be interpreted as a dialogue. Noc noc is a curious creature, but in a way we wanted it to mirror our curiosity back at us. Interacting with noc noc becomes a loop of reciprocal peeking and retreating, which allowed us to explore that unresolved space before knowing where curiosity lives. Noc noc invites the viewer to reflect not on the creature's intentions, but on their own.
It was very interesting for us to draw connections between our rather artistic embodiment of curiosity and, perhaps from a cognitive science perspective, curiosity as a mechanism for learning and exploration. We believe that noc noc challenges us not only to question what curiosity feels like, but also how do we recognize it in others, whether they are human or non-human creatures.
The Process
In order to design and bring noc noc's behaviour to life we used an Arduino, an ultra-sonic distance sensor (HC-SR04) and a servo motor. Lego proved to be a wonder when it came to securing things into place, and the black cardboard box helped keep all the 'magic' inside. Because of the scale of the Black box, we also wanted the viewer to be unsure of the creature’s actual size or appearance. This way, we aim to enhance the curiosity of those observing the eye. Our Arduino code can be found at: https://github.com/EmileVelthuis/noc-noc
Ultimately, noc noc is a reflection on the human experience of wanting to know the unknown, and the emotional vulnerability that comes with it. What if the thing on the other side of the door is just as curious about us as we are about it?
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