aliot-lookingoutwards08

A machine that judges how sick your ollies are. This is actually a really simple piece. The artist used a gyroscope as well as an accelerator to judge the angle and displacement of a skateboard in the x, y, and z directions. This work was so compelling to me because it was simple and snarky. Although there are definitely things I would change about it (instead of making a carnival game of it, I would have installed it in a skate park where people could use the board. the skaters would then be judged loudly and harshly by the machine in the presence of their peers), ultimately I find the idea of machine judgement of subjective things really fascinating. At some point, technically speaking a machine is better equipped than any fallible human to judge certain things… but is this always true? What qualifies as an ollie? As a “good” ollie? Is it some quantifiable motion or is it pizazz and attitude? Can machines judge your “cool factor,” can it make you self conscious?

http://digg.com/video/ollie-machine