BabyLove bumping cups

BabyLove (website) consists of 6 large size teacups and 6 clone babies. The teacup is designed into an auto-spinning unit. The baby, adorned with a locker key, a LED display with locker numbers running, is installed with a baby machine that serves as sound-processing unit.

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Visitors can upload mp3 love songs for baby’s ME-data. Through the web interface and on site card reader (reads from i-pod, mp3 player or any memory cards), the uploaded mp3 files are retrieved by baby machine via wireless network. The mp3 file is analyzed and segments looped for repeated learning. The teacup in auto mode is in a perpetual self-spin. The public invited to ride the teacup can set the teacup movement in manual mode. The turning of wheel and the changing of speed, while spinning forward and backward the teacup, also shuffle the mp3 files back and forth and in various speed. Like a DJ’s scratch of an LP, the altered soundscape is generated by human and baby interaction as teacup spins.

When the two teacups bump into each other, the bumper sensor detects the crash moment and sends signal to the web server and baby machine. Upon the crash, the babies swap mp3 files and reproduce the baby’s own remix. The crash data is recorded and remixed mp3 streamed on the web.

Shu Lea Cheang’s installation is at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris from Dec. 8 through January 8, 2006.