MONENA
Meet MONENA. Part of the Great Interactive Reef: an interactive underwater world, consisting of three reefs next to each other. MONENA lives in the centre reef low to the ground and is surrounded by two other friendly creatures.
The sea creature is inspired by the anemone, which is a coral animal named after the terrestrial flowering plant because of its colourful appearance.
The basic elements and characteristics of the source of inspiration are subtly integrated into MONENA's shape.
Vision
Go with the flow is what describes MONENA best. The creature becomes smaller and taller influenced by the benevolent spirit called Magrathean.
During the daytime, when no one is around, it is very relaxed and has a slow heartbeat which MONENA will show through a slow blue-purple pulsing light. However, when MONENA feels someone is within its personal space, alarm signs will go on in the creature. MONENA will breathe very heavily which will be expressed in a high heartbeat or in other words a fast blue-purple pulsing light.
At night, MONENA is asleep and therefore will not move and interact with the benevolent spirit. Also, it will not respond to other creatures and people. Instead, it will send out a signal consisting of medium pulsing light to give a warning to stay away.
MEMO in detail
MONENA is a creature that is assembled from two shapes, created by using the technique of tubes and star-shaped connection parts inspired by Philip Beesley.
The bottom shape moves over the top shape using a servo motor. Rotor blade moves wires up and down. Not only does the bottom part move, but the servo also makes the whole creature jiggle a bit. This movement is controlled by the Magrathean. The part of MONENA which reacts to humans is the LEDs. An infra-red sensor measures the distance between the human and the creature. The input from the sensor is converted to the reaction visible in the LEDs, making MONENA an interactive creature. All the technique is centered in the middle of MONENA. The micro-controller is attached to the bottom of the top shape from which wires connected to the LEDs in the top and bottom shape, an infra-red sensor attached to the side of the top shape, and the servo floating inside.
MONENA the process
MONENA was a project of a week with a group of three. Together with Isa van Gameren and Sijmen de Vries, we started off with an acting day where we did research on the movement of sea creatures and the interaction of sea creatures with others, the tide, and people. We chose an anemone as the creature to focus on and decided on the character and dynamic qualities. After this, we looked into the technology we would use and created a first prototype based on our chosen character. Then we experimented with the embodiment using Philip Beesley's tube construction. After finalising our interaction users could give feedback on our design during an exhibition.
