Negotiated Motions investigates negotiated behavior as a dynamic condition emerging between sensing systems, distributed mechanical units, and human presence. Rather than operating through direct causality or immediate response, the installation articulates movement through tension-based transformations, latency, and non-synchronous coordination. Human proximity does not function as a command, but as a catalyst that initiates gradual transitions between awakening, activity, and rest. Through delayed and adaptive feedback distributed across the system, motion unfolds as a shared process, foregrounding interaction as an ongoing negotiation rather than a moment of control.
The installation is composed of multiple modular kinetic units suspended within a structural frame. Each unit is constructed from recycled plastic egg packaging and activated through motor-driven mechanisms that pull and release steel wires, producing curling and extending motions. These tension-based movements avoid precise positional control and instead emphasize elasticity, deformation, and release. Repetition across units generates a collective rhythm, suggesting tentacular or vegetal behaviors that emerge from simple mechanical actions rather than centralized orchestration.
A camera-based sensing system detects human presence and movement in proximity to the installation. When activity is detected, the system gradually shifts from a dormant state into active motion. In the absence of interaction, movement slowly diminishes and the installation returns to rest. These state transitions are intentionally gradual rather than instantaneous, emphasizing temporal thresholds and the accumulation of interaction over time. Awakening and rest are treated not as binary conditions, but as fluid states negotiated through duration and proximity.
Control and coordination are distributed across multiple controllers and motor drivers, allowing each unit to participate in a shared behavioral field. Motion sequences, activation thresholds, and system states are configurable through a web-based control interface developed by the artist. Rather than prescribing fixed outcomes, this interface functions as a meta-layer for choreographing relationships between units, enabling the system to remain open, adjustable, and responsive to different exhibition contexts.
By combining industrial byproducts, custom electronics, and programmable motion, Negotiated Motions situates itself within an in-between space between craft and computation, autonomy and responsiveness, and natural and artificial systems. The work invites viewers to encounter interaction as a relational condition shaped by negotiation rather than command, foregrounding material sensitivity and temporal mediation as central conditions of contemporary human–machine relationships.
kinetic installation, interaction, biomimicry
