KMD | Haptic
Kinesthetic Motion Database





Haptic


Watching a tarantula crawling on James Bond’s chest can make us imagine and feel as if it were crawling on our own body. We can easily simulate the haptic feel other people are experiencing by just seeing it—so, how about the haptic feel 'objects' might be experiencing?



| Object movements
| Kinesthetic representation



1st prototype of Balance Machine

A first prototype to make a sculpture that almost falls over. Because the box is too heavy and flexible, the hammer fails to tilt the structure.



Biometal experiment

The rhythm of rolling, the angle of balancing, the elliptic shape of the sculpture, the hard materiality which not only the visual but also the sound tells us. With what kind of kinesthetic feeling would you empathise with the motion? My kinesthetic empathy with the elliptic sculpture can be better expressed with a rocking chair. I can simulate how it would feel like if I were to move like the sculpture, but my body is not enough to actually demonstrate the feeling of rolling on the round and hard edge. Sitting on a rocking chair, it feels like an extension of my body, not just an external object.


kinesthetic representation
Shishi-odoshi in Shisendo Temple

Puwants Dahlia is an artificial water plant which stands using the buoyancy of air stuck in the flower. The air is supplied through the stem made of a plastic tube. When the air goes out from the tiny hole on top of the flower, the plant loses buoyancy and consequently its balance momentarily.


kinesthetic representation

Choreographic Objects by William Forsythe

William Forsythe’s Choreographic Objects uses two synchronous robot arms which hold and wave black flags. The motion of the arms and joints as well as how they grip flags remind me of the actual human arms dynamically waving a large and heavy flag.