Created by Shashwath Santosh and Nithin Eluvathingal (Studio Kinky Kashayam), the Portable Black Cat Radar is part of an ongoing series exploring Machines Responding to Superstitions. The device is comprised of a GPS, gyroscope and magnetometer to gauge your position in the world while at the same time generating fictional black cats for you to dodge.
The project’s overarching theme is speculation –– a world-building exercise to imagine a world where we deal with superstitions through gadgets. Using Southern-Indian belief systems, the project imagines what industrial design would look like if it grew within and amongst the belief systems different to those we have now. Borrowing from the worlds of industrial design, engineering, manufacturing, critical thought, and world-building, the duo celebrate ‘the machine’ as a medium for interrogation.
Many of us have encountered the ideology that crossing the path of a black cat will bring misfortune. If only a machine could show you all the black cats in your vicinity, you could avoid crossing their paths and protect your luck. Our relationship to thought frameworks, such as superstitious luck, is a uniquely human experience resulting from centuries of evolution.
Research indicates that our relationship to thought frameworks, such as superstitious luck, is a uniquely human experience resulting from thousands of years of evolution. It is part of the complex web of stories we tell ourselves as a species to conveniently situate ourselves in a reality we designed. This guides our imagination around the objects we choose to make and prioritize.
The device first invites the user to input their travel trajectory. While they are walking, the device is continuously assessing the risk level. As the fictional black cats are generated and their location displayed, the users’ task is to avoid them, thus avoiding the risk (of misfortune) altogether. The interaction is achieved through joysticks, knobs, toggle switches, and command buttons.
Kinky Kashayam | Shashwath Santosh | Nithin Eluvathingal
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