Name: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)
Uploaded: 2011-11-08T15:32:44Z
Duration: 7 min 33 s
Description: Artist and TED Fellow Aparna Rao re-imagines the familiar in surprising, often humorous ways. With her collaborator Soren Pors, Rao creates high-tech art installations -- a typewriter that sends emails, a camera that tracks you through the room only to make you invisible on screen -- that put a playful spin on ordinary objects and interactions.

Aparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)

High-tech art (with a sense of humor)

Artist and TED Fellow Aparna Rao re-imagines the familiar in surprising, often humorous ways. With her collaborator Soren Pors, Rao creates high-tech art installations -- a typewriter that sends emails, a camera that tracks you through the room only to make you invisible on screen -- that put a playful spin on ordinary objects and interactions.

Familiar items like telephones, typewriters, and teddy bears are transformed into interactive art installations that surprise, amuse, and invite participation. A two-person 'Uncle Phone' inspired by family rituals, a golden typewriter that sends emails, and shy mechanical pygmies that react to sound all show how technology can spark curiosity. These whimsical creations encourage people to engage, question, and even form emotional connections with objects that behave in unexpected, lifelike ways.