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Design

Turn yourself Into A Bug/Robot Hybrid With Eyesect

Inching ever closer to the cyborg revolution.
Image via The Constitute

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could see with your hands? With the beautiful and terrifying appearance of a blob of liquid mercury with freaky, independently-moving chameleon eyes (with maybe a dash of the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth), the EYESECT project from The Constitute seeks to answer that question--and to show us the many ways we “don’t see.”

Still from EYESECT video demo

Described by the creators as “a wearable interactive installation that reflects an Out-of-Bodiment in an immersive way,” the virtual/ augmented reality helmet projects an individual camera feed directly onto each of the user’s eyes.  They can be attached to the front of the camera, or taken off into the hands and pointed independently- like holding one above and to the front and one above and to the back like the sneakiest of periscopes. The device chops up our binocular human vision into a stereoscopic feed (more about stereoscopic art here) that can be experienced privately or linked up to a screen to share the experience with others. Using the device, you can literally take the way you see into your own hands.

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Check out the video below for a demonstration of EYESECT; it’s amazing to watch someone walk around with it on and manage to navigate through space.

EYEsect by THE CONSTITUTE from THE CONSTITUTE.

The Constitute are no strangers to getting people to test the limits of reality; they’re known for grand-scale public interactions like SMSLINGSHOT, where users could splatter virtual paintballs of their own text messages onto a wall using a ‘digital intervention device’ shaped like a wooden slingshot.

Digital Intervention Device from SMSLINGSHOT. Image via the Constitute.

Text-message paintball splatters from SMSLINGSHOT. Image via The Constitute.

Image via AND Fair/ Chris Foster

We’d love to know if anyone out there had a chance to try the EYESECT while it was being test-driven in Liverpool at the AND Fair- was it transcendent, or too much for a linearly- wired brain to take in? And for those (like us) who haven’t gotten a chance to get their hands on one, what would be the coolest thing you can imagine looking at with one of these? Let us know in the comments!

Image via AND Fair/ Chris Foster