🌍 The Earth

Idea

The centerpiece of my artifact is a model of the earth surrounded by glowing figurines. These little people are always pushing the earth at a relatively fast speed, causing it to rotate. However, every once in a while, one of the little people stops glowing and moves slower, and the Earth’s rotation slows down a bit as a result. If you take away all the little people that don’t glow, then the Earth will spin again at its original speed. As long as there are little people who don’t glow, more little people will stop glowing. The person interacting with this device can choose whether or not to take away the non-glowing figurines.

Process and reflections

We shared our ideas about the three stories first and we picked out two feasible artifacts. After voting, we finally decided to use my idea “The Earth”, which is easier to be turned into a play.

The difficulty we encountered was how to represent the light and dark of the little people around the earth. Astroyd proposed that we all wear black T-shirts and play the characters, simulating the light and dark of the little people by putting on and taking off the white coats. Then we discussed about the actors’ lines. At first, we wanted to put our emphasis on the policies, but it was too vulgar. So we chose to set “Why we can’t just be another specie” as our main idea. After that, Eric, Casandra, Yuan Quan and me started to make the Earth model with carboard. We cut the cupboards into three circles and assembled them into a ball. And we used paper to cover it and drew several continents on it to make it look like the Earth. At the same time, Bella and Astroyd was rehearsing the play. Then the main part of the play was finished. And all our us rehearsed once before the performance.

Reflecting on the process, I think there are some things to be improved. We only had two characters with lines, which made for a lack of stage presence. After the performance, I realized that the audience could not easily understand that we represented the light and darkness of the little people by putting on and taking off the white coats, and it was also difficult to understand that we interacted with the installation by going away and walking back to the Earth. We should increase the amount of lines each of us has and be more intuitive.

Meanings

In the background of the story, this device is a model of the Epidemic Defense Headquarters. Each figurine represents a thousand people. If ten million people become stone statues, one figurine will stop glowing. Once ten million stone statues are shattered, a dimmed figurine is removed. This model is used to visualize the situation of the epidemic. And those who did a good job of preventing the epidemic were able to be promoted to the headquarters. When they learned that the gargoyles were still alive, they were confronted with the model and inevitably reflected on what they had done in the past.

In 2019, the world experienced the sweep of Covid 19. Epidemic preparedness is important, yet have we gone so far in strict prevention and control that it has led to some unnecessary harm? I hope that this project will cause people to reflect on how we can do better when faced with the next epidemic.

Team

I provided the idea and designed our props. Cassandra, Yuan Quan, Eric and I made our props together; Astroyd and Bella were the actresses, and the lines were wrote by them. We communicated with Wechat. We spent one evening discussing it, then an afternoon getting the props ready, and finally a rehearsal the afternoon before the show. As everyone was very cooperative and the project was very simple to complete, the overall process went very well.

Another group

Title: Promax Nebulous 3000 Cyber

The AI wanted to save the boy in Omelas, so it took all the other citizens away. It’s a metaphor for the way AI is changing our daily lives, as in the story where the AI wings take it upon themselves to take people away. I think the name of the project is cool and artistic. The props they used were also well done, with nicely painted wings and cardboard. The performances were also well rounded and interesting and were able to engage the audience to understand their ideas. However, the AI in this project thought for itself and acted without people’s permission. In this process, the interaction between human and machine was not obvious, which was not very consistent with the requirements of “interactive art installation”. I think it would be better if the AI wings were controlled by some people. At the same time, the plot of the AI taking people away was a bit subtle, and I didn’t understand at first what they were trying to say about the impact of AI on people’s lives. Overall, I enjoyed their show, it was very cool!

Script:

Characters: The Crow, The Crow Captain, four figures carrying the device.

[Enters the Crow]

The Crow: (To the audience) It has been two years since the outbreak of the plague. And as an executor of the Emergency Management Institution, or as others call me, a “Crow”, I have dealt with petrified corpses numerous times, collecting them, transporting them, and burning them up. Though trained to be ruthless and efficient, I’m still sometimes disturbed by the heartrending screams that burst out of the oven as the corpses are burnt, as if reminding me that they were once a member of living things, or even crazier, as if they were alive.

Deep inside, a part of my heart named conscience struggles with every move of my body throwing the moveless statues into the fire, more and more desperately. I dare not think that they could still have consciousness. I almost feel like a murderer.

[Enters the Crow Captain]

The Crow Captain: So that’s what makes you come to me.

The Crow: I cannot stand this torture of mind anymore, Captain. I need an explanation, a reason for me to carry on — if I still can carry on.

The Crow Captain: I understand. Come, I have something to show you.

[They come to a device in the middle of the Emergency Management Institution headquarter — The Earth.] The Crow: What is this?

The Crow Captain: What do you see?

The Crow: It is our earth, driven by a group of lightened human figures…What does it tell?

The Crow Captain: Look closer.

[One of the human figures fades, and the earth turns slower.] The Crow: One of them just fades out.

The Crow Captain: Be patient.

[Onther figure fades, and the earth gets even slower.] The Crow Captain: What did you notice?

The Crow: The earth, it’s getting slower and slower. Why?

The Crow Captain: You see, this is the planet that we live on. Everything went so well in the old days, until the plague broke out. People started to get infected, and as it spread, our earth could no more function as before. Can you imagine what would happen if we left those faded figures there?

The Crow: Then more of these figures will fade as well.

The Crow Captain: Exactly. Now what will you do?

The Crow: Can I…?

[The Crow attempts to reach out to one of the faded figures and pulls it off the device. The speed of the earth gets back a little.] The Crow: I can see it gets back a little.

The Crow Captain: Go on.

[The Crow pulls the other faded one off. The earth goes back to its normal speed.] [They stand and look at the device for a while. The Crow turns to the faded figures left on the ground.]

The Crow Captain: Now do you understand the meaning of our mission?

The Crow: But as for these faded parts…

The Crow Captain: We have no choice.

[The Crow Captain is going to leave, but stops as the Crow calls them.]

The Crow: Captain, have you heard of the story that happened a month ago?

The Crow Captain: What are you referring to?

The Crow: I heard one of the Crows — they say he was the best one of all – he was summoned by the Director General.

The Crow Captain: What else do you know?

The Crow: There was no news on him anymore. They say he gave up the position and got infected soon after that, but his body is unfound.

The Crow Captain: And what do you want to know?

The Crow: I wonder what they talked about that day, what made him quit and what happened to him after that.

The Crow Captain: You have known enough. Too many questions will do you no good.

The Crow: What do you mean “do me no good”?

The Crow Captain: There are people like us dying every day, not from the plague, but they commit suicide.

The Crow: So you know what happened that day.

The Crow Captain: I wish I did not. I shouldn’t say this to you.

[The Crow looks at the faded figures again.] The Crow: Are those people alive?

The Crow Captain: I wish I could say yes.

The Crow: Then why are we still doing this? This is murder.

[The Crow Captain points to the device.]

The Crow Captain: Have you ever thought about what it means when this earth stops?

The Crow: The end of the world?

The Crow Captain: No. It’s the end of the domination of our kind.

The Crow: So you mean what we are doing is not just controlling the plague and protecting the uninfected, but to defend this domination — by killing -by this massacre?

The Crow Captain: Now that you’ve known everything.

[Silence. The Crow walks around the device, and puts the faded parts back to the earth.]

The Crow: What’s the problem of having the earth turn slower?

The Crow Captain: What are you talking about?

The Crow: And what’s the problem of becoming another kind? Our bodies won’t die, our minds won’t die. Everything just becomes slower, much slower…

[All human figures fade out. The earth stops.]

The Crow: And the earth will still keep turning…