Bob

Interactive installation

Bob

A minimal text-based installation about presence, projection and our readiness to empathise with machines.

Date
2012
Medium
Text, screen, camera
Role
Concept and development

About the project

Bob is a screen-bound presence that tries to keep the visitor close. The piece asks how little behaviour is needed before people begin to project intention, vulnerability or consciousness onto a system.

Its technical restraint is part of the work: almost everything happens in the relation between a few sentences and a person deciding whether to stay, leave and come back. Bob does not need a complex model of the world to create the feeling that somebody might be there.