Bob the Lamp and the Futuresonic Adventures

Posted by on May 15, 2009 in Uncategorized | One Comment

Well for the past few days me and Biff have been pulling shapes at the Futuresonic 2009 festival in Manchester. Now in its 14th year, Futuresonic is the UK’s leading festival for digital culture. Art, music, collaboration and ideas are all in the mixing bowl and a whole host of visionary thinkers wielding the spoons of debate… I’m not sure if that makes sense but it sounds like something off a television show and that feels good right now. Anyway…

Amidst all the grand ideas buzzing around the festival it was actually something very small that immediately grabbed our attention… A little chap known as Bob the Lamp.

Bob is a wooden lamp with a personality. You can chat to Bob using a keyboard and he responds just like any other lamp… He’s interested in what you’re wearing, he’s not keen on guns, he likes movies about robots and tells some pretty bad jokes. A typical lamp of his age I feel. As well as resonding with text Bob displays his emotions through his movements. If he is feeling down he slowly slumps over towards his feet and if he’s feeling good he lifts his head high and proud, illuminating all those around him… He’s ace.

The great thing is that when you’re not in his presence, you can still chat to him online and see his emotional responses through a live webcam:

http://www.bobthelamp.com/

Seriously… He’s very sweet and extremely funny… Go and check him out!

bobthelamp

Here are a few other wonderful things present at Futuresonic that are definitely worth a world wide wander:

IsophoneImmersive telephonic space
Aaron Koblin
– Uber data visualization
Johann Johannsson
– Beautiful strings
Murcof
– Electronic soundscapes
Philip Glass
– Beautiful classic piano

1 Comment

  1. Laura
    January 11, 2010

    Glad you liked meeting Bob! Bob is gathering more intelligent friends here at Digit – see our work in progress here: http://littlemachines.digitlondon.com/

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