Free Range Appliances in a Light Dill Sauce
Free Range Appliances in a Light Dill Sauce is an exploration of anthropomorphic qualities inherent in household gadgets and an irreverent look at the meaning of ''smart'' appliances. Kitchen appliances are liberated from their mundane existences and taught motor skills; enabling them to fully realize their suppressed ambulatory desires.

Each of the appliances have been retrofitted with "state of the art" mechanics and sensors. Each machine has been carefully and lovingly enhanced in accordance with its individual personality. The work is done the old-fashioned way; hand crafted by skilled artisans living in the depths of the remote island Manhattan. This time worn process is the key to our success. Most of our products are photo sensitive and react to the bright lights. Of course, all of them are friendly and enjoy the company of humans. Shining an ordinary household flashlight directly on the body of any one of the appliances will cause it to move towards the light. Removing the flashlight will cause it to seek light and heat elsewhere. Some days, if the machines are in a good mood, they may break out in a celebratory dance. We hope you enjoy our Free Range Appliances in a Light Dill Sauce. If you're happy, they're happy.

Basic Care and Feeding: Battery replacement and periodic battery charging is needed.

see the appliances at these recent venues:

SIGGRAPH 2000 (photos!) July 22 - 28, 2000 New Orleans
Ars Electronica 2000 (photos!) Sept 2 - 7, 2000 Linz, Austria
Doors of Perception Nov 11- 13, 2000 Amsterdam, Netherlands
ArtFuture 2000 Nov 17-27, 2000 Taipei, Taiwan
ISEA Dec 7-10, 2000 Paris, France

Oh, the many incarnations of home appliances...

Originally this project was created for Danny Rozin's Advanced Multimedia Workshop at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Spring of 1999. It was featured in a New York Times article on the Physical Computing Show that happens twice a year at ITP. The piece was titled TOASTER FANDANGO and consisted of a toaster and a toaster oven that were outfitted with wheels and feet. This enabled them to dance to James Brown. The dancing toasters have evolved into my Master's Thesis and you can read more on this piece...
The next incarnation of the project was mounted in the summer of 1999 in Beijing, China. This time called, FREE RANGE TOASTERS IN A LIGHT DILL SAUCE...
...the piece featured the roaming toasters on a fake grass landscape with dreamy white toast suspended from the ceiling. Although the exhibition was closed at the last moment by the authorities, it's still possible to see some of what it looked like. Warning: the video is a little dark, but here is some footage...

This piece is currently entitled FREE RANGE APPLIANCES IN A LIGHT DILL SAUCE in light of the fact that a hand mixer has been added to the ensenble. These pieces in addition to some other new pieces will make up the cast for the performance piece as mentioned in the Thesis Project. Here is an abridged transcript of a presentation given to SiggraphNY on the Free Range Appliances in a Light Dill Sauce...