Watch video of the talk here.

Cezanne Charles and John Marshall are co-directors of rootoftwo, a hybrid design studio that makes social objects, experiences and works for the public realm. Cezanne is also the Director of Creative Industries for Creative Many, and John is an associate professor at the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan.

The focus of their talk, Whithervanes, a Neurotic Early Worrying System (NEWS), consists of a network of sculptures in the form of five headless chickens presented on the highest points of five buildings. The Whithervanes track and measure the production of fear on the internet. When fear is encountered, the chickens respond by rotating away at increasing revolutions and are illuminated in different colours. This ‘early worrying system’ highlights how much our contemporary media, policy and political frameworks utilize fear as a persuasive method.

Their installation, THR_33 (Tea House for Robots), is comprised of a responsive environment and a group of robotically enhanced domestic appliances. It proposes that that as our appliances become smarter we might change the way we live and come to think of them.