Contemporary Chinese Art- another kind of view
DSL Collection
Baby Love
More information on the works
More information on the works
The Locker Baby Project ? Shu Lea Cheang
BabyPlay (2001)
BabyLove (2005)
BabyWork (to be realized)
The Locker Baby project conceived in 2001 reflects a time when science is accused of out of control and scifi fantasia fortells a future that is now. The quest for rechargeable robot labor continues, intelligent pets open up new markets and transgenic clones are among us. Versions updated, bodies unwired, behaviours dictated, what remain to be programmed are "memory" and "emotions".
The Locker Baby project recalls Ryu Murakami's noted novel Coin Locker Babies (1980) in which twin boys were abandoned at birth in one square foot coin locker metal box at Tokyo?s subway station. The boys grew up haunted with the sound of human heart beats, those of their birth mother?s. Coin lockers are Japan's train station landmark and much utilized by shoppers and travelers. In post-war japan, unwanted babies (often interracial) by unwed mothers were dropped off in coin-lockers. Fear of terrorists' explosive deposit, coin lockers have ceased to exist at public space in most metropolitan cities. In 1995, when Tokyo Doomsday was called for by cult Aum Shinrikyo, the coin lockers were sealed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force for a day. The historical association and references derived from coin lockers inspire the Locker Baby project.
The Locker Baby project proposes a fictional scenario set in year 2030. The transnational DPT (DollyPolly Transgency) advances clone babies as an industry. Genes extracted from deep sea pearls harvested off Okinawa Island are identified as best breed. Coin lockers situated in busy Tokyo train stations are located for underworld test tube fertilization. Ticking seconds to oblivion in darkness, the lockers announce the birth of the Clone Generation. Serving themselves in the intelligent industry, the locker babies are entrusted to negotiate human "memory" and "emotions". The Locker Baby holds the key to unlock the networked inter-sphere of ME-motion (MEmory-eMOTION), a playfield of sonic imagery triggered only by human interaction.
Baby Play, the first installment of the Locker Baby project, was commissioned by and realized at NTT[ICC] (Intercommunication Center, Tokyo) in 2001. Baby Play uses a large scale table football field (15m x 7.5m) to link Locker Baby with networked inter-sphere. Table football (termed baby foot in French), a pastime game of the last century, serves as an interface for net interactivity. Opposing rows of ball players (22 in total) are replaced by human sized cloned locker babies (140cm in height). The movement of the ball bounced by the players is tracked by 36 touch sensors that are ?mined? below the floor surface. On the web, 36 lockers, each a depository of texts and sound, correspond to 36 sensor fields. The sensor data of ball movement is transmitted to the web. Accordingly the tracking of ball movement retrieves ME-data (texts and sound) deposited in the respective lockers.
Baby Love, the second installment of the Locker Baby project, was commissioned by the National Taiwan museum of Fine Arts and first exhibited at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2005. Baby Love consists of 6 large size (170 diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall). Each teacup is an auto-driving mobile unit. Each baby installed with a mac-mini is wifi linked to the Net depository of popular love songs. Baby Love situates human and its baby clones in a perpetual spin of fairground teacup ride. The teacup ride, its spinning wheel allows direction manoeuver and speed variation, shuffles and remixes the love songs in the baby engine. A gentle ride can turn into fast spin, the data jams and jammed, we are left to sort out the ME with the babies in the swirling teacups. The crash would eventually happen .
Baby Work, the third installment of the Locker Baby project, is yet to be realized. In 2001 when I conceived the project, I have imagined baby work would adapt typewriters as interface. Over the years, as sketches are drafted, it was keyboards and more keyboards -- conveyer belt keyboard third world labor, defunct keyboards, junkyard keyboards. The alphabets and numbers, the keys that connect to ME-data. Ultimately, this is baby work.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
a mobile wifi installation
Baby Love is a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size (160 diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall). The teacup modelled after the spinning teacup of the old-time playground is designed into an auto-spinning unit. The teacup made in light-weight, anti-corrosive FRP (Fiber Glass Reinforced Plastics), is equipped with two motors (320 watts each unit), , spinning wheels and electronic sensor system for the speed control and direction maneuver. On each of the teacup, a hand-made clone baby in silicon rubber. The baby, adorned with a locker key, a LED display with locker numbers running, is installed with a baby machine (a mac-mini with 802.11 wifi) that serves as sound-processing unit.
Riding the teacups
Baby Love invites the public to 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 recoded for ME-database and retrieved by baby machine via wireless network. Upon receiving the data, the mp3 file is analyzed and segments looped for repeated learning. The spinning teacup is its auto and manual modes further interacts with the baby's sound processing. 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 (left and right) and the changing of speed (1,2,3), while spinning forward and backward the teacup, also shuffle (via sensor data that detect and transmit the movement) the mp3 files back and forth and in various speed. Like a DJ's scratch of an LP, the altered soundscape (written in MaxSP/jitter) is generated by human and baby interaction as teacup spins.
The crash
The teacup's bottom plate (178cm diameter) is inflated with a layer of silicon tube enclosing a circular strip of contact bumper. When the two teacups bump into each other, the bumper sensor detects the crash moment and sends signal (via wifi 802.11) 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.
Exhibition schedules (2005-2008)
*Palais de Tokyo, Site de Creation Contemporaine, Paris, France
December 8, 2005 to January 8, 2006
*National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
May 21 to June 18, 2006
*ISEA2006 - ZEROONE San Jose, USA
August 7 to August 13, 2006
*Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
November 30, 2006 to January 13, 2007
***Australia tour organized by Experimenta.org Experimenta Playground
*Blackbox, The Arts Center, Melbourne
August 24 to September 23, 2007
*Carriageworks, Sydney
October 2 to November 3, 2007
*WA Museum, Perth for Awesome Arts Festival
November 16 to November 25, 2007
*Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts, Stavanger, Norway
*** organized by NuProductions for "A world of sound"
for Stavanger2008, the European Capital of Culture anno 2008
March 23 to May 11, 2008
*National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
*** China International New Media Arts Exhibition 2008
in conjunction with Beijing Olympic Games
June 20 to July 4 2008 (invited pending on budget)
*inIVA Rivington Place, London.UK
*** Shu Lea Cheang solo show with new commission LOVEME2030
September 18 to November 17, 2008
BabyPlay (2001)
BabyLove (2005)
BabyWork (to be realized)
The Locker Baby project conceived in 2001 reflects a time when science is accused of out of control and scifi fantasia fortells a future that is now. The quest for rechargeable robot labor continues, intelligent pets open up new markets and transgenic clones are among us. Versions updated, bodies unwired, behaviours dictated, what remain to be programmed are "memory" and "emotions".
The Locker Baby project recalls Ryu Murakami's noted novel Coin Locker Babies (1980) in which twin boys were abandoned at birth in one square foot coin locker metal box at Tokyo?s subway station. The boys grew up haunted with the sound of human heart beats, those of their birth mother?s. Coin lockers are Japan's train station landmark and much utilized by shoppers and travelers. In post-war japan, unwanted babies (often interracial) by unwed mothers were dropped off in coin-lockers. Fear of terrorists' explosive deposit, coin lockers have ceased to exist at public space in most metropolitan cities. In 1995, when Tokyo Doomsday was called for by cult Aum Shinrikyo, the coin lockers were sealed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force for a day. The historical association and references derived from coin lockers inspire the Locker Baby project.
The Locker Baby project proposes a fictional scenario set in year 2030. The transnational DPT (DollyPolly Transgency) advances clone babies as an industry. Genes extracted from deep sea pearls harvested off Okinawa Island are identified as best breed. Coin lockers situated in busy Tokyo train stations are located for underworld test tube fertilization. Ticking seconds to oblivion in darkness, the lockers announce the birth of the Clone Generation. Serving themselves in the intelligent industry, the locker babies are entrusted to negotiate human "memory" and "emotions". The Locker Baby holds the key to unlock the networked inter-sphere of ME-motion (MEmory-eMOTION), a playfield of sonic imagery triggered only by human interaction.
Baby Play, the first installment of the Locker Baby project, was commissioned by and realized at NTT[ICC] (Intercommunication Center, Tokyo) in 2001. Baby Play uses a large scale table football field (15m x 7.5m) to link Locker Baby with networked inter-sphere. Table football (termed baby foot in French), a pastime game of the last century, serves as an interface for net interactivity. Opposing rows of ball players (22 in total) are replaced by human sized cloned locker babies (140cm in height). The movement of the ball bounced by the players is tracked by 36 touch sensors that are ?mined? below the floor surface. On the web, 36 lockers, each a depository of texts and sound, correspond to 36 sensor fields. The sensor data of ball movement is transmitted to the web. Accordingly the tracking of ball movement retrieves ME-data (texts and sound) deposited in the respective lockers.
Baby Love, the second installment of the Locker Baby project, was commissioned by the National Taiwan museum of Fine Arts and first exhibited at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2005. Baby Love consists of 6 large size (170 diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall). Each teacup is an auto-driving mobile unit. Each baby installed with a mac-mini is wifi linked to the Net depository of popular love songs. Baby Love situates human and its baby clones in a perpetual spin of fairground teacup ride. The teacup ride, its spinning wheel allows direction manoeuver and speed variation, shuffles and remixes the love songs in the baby engine. A gentle ride can turn into fast spin, the data jams and jammed, we are left to sort out the ME with the babies in the swirling teacups. The crash would eventually happen .
Baby Work, the third installment of the Locker Baby project, is yet to be realized. In 2001 when I conceived the project, I have imagined baby work would adapt typewriters as interface. Over the years, as sketches are drafted, it was keyboards and more keyboards -- conveyer belt keyboard third world labor, defunct keyboards, junkyard keyboards. The alphabets and numbers, the keys that connect to ME-data. Ultimately, this is baby work.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
a mobile wifi installation
Baby Love is a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size (160 diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall). The teacup modelled after the spinning teacup of the old-time playground is designed into an auto-spinning unit. The teacup made in light-weight, anti-corrosive FRP (Fiber Glass Reinforced Plastics), is equipped with two motors (320 watts each unit), , spinning wheels and electronic sensor system for the speed control and direction maneuver. On each of the teacup, a hand-made clone baby in silicon rubber. The baby, adorned with a locker key, a LED display with locker numbers running, is installed with a baby machine (a mac-mini with 802.11 wifi) that serves as sound-processing unit.
Riding the teacups
Baby Love invites the public to 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 recoded for ME-database and retrieved by baby machine via wireless network. Upon receiving the data, the mp3 file is analyzed and segments looped for repeated learning. The spinning teacup is its auto and manual modes further interacts with the baby's sound processing. 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 (left and right) and the changing of speed (1,2,3), while spinning forward and backward the teacup, also shuffle (via sensor data that detect and transmit the movement) the mp3 files back and forth and in various speed. Like a DJ's scratch of an LP, the altered soundscape (written in MaxSP/jitter) is generated by human and baby interaction as teacup spins.
The crash
The teacup's bottom plate (178cm diameter) is inflated with a layer of silicon tube enclosing a circular strip of contact bumper. When the two teacups bump into each other, the bumper sensor detects the crash moment and sends signal (via wifi 802.11) 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.
Exhibition schedules (2005-2008)
*Palais de Tokyo, Site de Creation Contemporaine, Paris, France
December 8, 2005 to January 8, 2006
*National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
May 21 to June 18, 2006
*ISEA2006 - ZEROONE San Jose, USA
August 7 to August 13, 2006
*Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
November 30, 2006 to January 13, 2007
***Australia tour organized by Experimenta.org Experimenta Playground
*Blackbox, The Arts Center, Melbourne
August 24 to September 23, 2007
*Carriageworks, Sydney
October 2 to November 3, 2007
*WA Museum, Perth for Awesome Arts Festival
November 16 to November 25, 2007
*Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts, Stavanger, Norway
*** organized by NuProductions for "A world of sound"
for Stavanger2008, the European Capital of Culture anno 2008
March 23 to May 11, 2008
*National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
*** China International New Media Arts Exhibition 2008
in conjunction with Beijing Olympic Games
June 20 to July 4 2008 (invited pending on budget)
*inIVA Rivington Place, London.UK
*** Shu Lea Cheang solo show with new commission LOVEME2030
September 18 to November 17, 2008
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Cui Xiuwen
a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size (170 cm diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall)
a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size (170 cm diameter) teacups and 6 clone babies (70 cm tall)