I’m fascinated by antique scientific instruments. Sometimes that fascination goes too far, and I’m compelled to eviscerate them. Sensitive Research is part of a series of pieces combining natural materials with technological artifacts.

The preserved lemon inside Sensitive Research spins and strobes in response to various environmental factors, including network activity (if available), but, most importantly, the settings of the two front-panel knobs, which are quite pleasant to tweak.

Sensitive Research is now in the collection of Judith Zissman.

Sensitive Research was exhibited in the Art Gallery at Siggraph 2003. Here’s a few photos from the exhibition.

At first, they put it inside a glass box– missing the point of an interactive piece. So I sneaked the box off in order to let people tweak the knobs. By the end of the exhibit, both knobs were broken.