Escaping chair: furniture-shaped device art

Abstract

Furniture-device is the device having furniture appearance and physical input and output function. The Escaping Chair is a furniture-device having physical and dynamic interaction with a user to let them perceive the intent of their action and personify the furniture. The Escaping Chair interacts with the bystanders by trying to move away from nearby people. By doing this, the device tries to make the person fail to sit on it, and stimulates their perception about sitting. The idea of a furniture-shaped device was extended from one of my previous artworks, which used furniture as input mechanisms. I exhibited the chair and observed the interaction sit produced with exhibition visitors. It succeeded in making people wonder during the interaction, as I planned, and making them further chase the chair, which indicates a new capability of the device. There were some challenges regarding load tolerance, detection latency and failure, which I have proposed improvements for.