January 2008

The Lovelies from Nova Jiang on Vimeo.

‘The Lovelies’ are a pair of life-size, physical puppets controlled by Wii remotes, Nintendo’s motion sensing game controller. The audience are invited to become the puppeteers. They can interact with each other by performing with the puppet characters. In this case, the Wii remotes behave just like traditional control bars used to manipulate marionettes. For each puppet, A Wii remote is placed inside a custom interface which the audience can manipulate. A computer receives information from the Wii remote and pass it onto a micro-controller. The micro-controller then controls servo-motors which animate the puppet according to the movement of the Wii remote.

In all societies, puppets are used to express emotions and behave in ways impermissible to humans. Puppets have no egos. Therefore they can act in ways which are embarrassing for humans in daily life. I want ‘The Lovelies’ to be a playground for hidden emotions. For example, by playing with the puppets, strangers can experience intimacy and couples in troubled relationships can explore new ways to communicate. Puppet therapy is often used as a technique when counseling children. For example, the way a child plays with puppets can yield a great deal of insight into his or her social feelings. ‘The Lovelies’ is about bringing people back to a state of innocence, allowing the ‘regression’ which facilitates play.