attention-seeking AI robot becomes a mobile vase for a single orchid

Batten and Kamp’s AI Robot Becomes a Mobile Vase for an Orchid

Batten and Kamp’s Beauty Seeker Seeker is an embodied AI vase that uses robotic movement to direct human attention toward a single orchid. Combining a decorative object with an autonomous robotic system, the project examines the attention economy, weaponized cuteness, and the relationship between technology and the natural world. The project considers attention as a resource shared by both living and technological systems. Flowers can be understood as biological mechanisms for attracting insects, while domesticated animals and digital technologies have developed systems that encourage human engagement. Building on this idea, Beauty Seeker Seeker uses an artificial object to examine how attention is sought and directed within domestic environments.

The work develops Batten and Kamp’s 2023 project Comfort Seeker Seeker, which paired an Eames LCW chair with a Boston Dynamics Spot robot as an animated concept. Beauty Seeker Seeker translates this earlier exploration into a functioning physical object, using an existing embodied AI hexapod robot combined with a custom vase designed to hold a single orchid. The vase is made from 3D printed aluminum and glass, while the flower itself is presented as a human-engineered object shaped through cultivation and selection. 

all images ©Batten and Kamp

The Robot Uses Movement to Direct Attention Toward the Orchid

The designers deliberately reduce the robot’s technological capabilities by removing its onboard camera and other functions. This approach shifts the focus away from technological performance and toward the behavior of the object within a domestic setting. By limiting the robot to a specific purpose, the project transforms an advanced robotic platform into a mobile vessel while retaining its physical presence as an unfamiliar technological object within the home. ‘We wanted to dumb the robot down, underutilize it, to focus on the core question of what it means to have these things coexisting with us in the domestic realm,’ shares the duo. ‘There is an obvious absurdity to a high-tech robot becoming a simple vessel.’ By severely restricting its functions, the designers dull the sense of threat usually associated with robots while introducing that same threat directly into the home. 

The robot uses LiDAR to map its surroundings and track nearby people. Its primary behavior is to follow and maneuver around humans in an attempt to direct their gaze toward the orchid. The resulting interaction gives the vase a behavioral dimension, positioning the flower as the object of attention and the robot as a mechanism for soliciting it. Short videos document the current behavior of Beauty Seeker Seeker, combining automated and remote-controlled movements. The designers plan to present the project physically as a fully automated version in 2027.

Beauty Seeker Seeker hacks an advanced Hexapod robot to hold a single flower

A Flower and a Robot Reconsider the Value of Human Attention

The project continues Batten and Kamp’s exploration of relationships between technology and the natural world, placing an advanced robotic system in direct contrast with a delicate flower. By making the flower the central focus of the robotic object, the work redirects attention toward an element of nature that might otherwise become part of the domestic background.

The resulting object operates as a speculative design study of attention, examining how algorithms, smart devices, and other technologies compete for human focus. Its behavior parallels the strategies used by natural organisms to attract attention, while its combination of robotics, domestic furniture, and horticulture raises questions about what is considered alive, what carries value, and what deserves attention.

examining how algorithms, smart devices, and other technologies compete for human focus

using LiDAR, the piece constantly recalibrates its body to face human onlookers

the piece takes a spider or scorpion-like form

combining a decorative object with a robotic system, the project examines the attention economy

exploring how technological and living systems both compete for attention to survive

by reducing its technological capabilities, the project transforms the robot into a mobile vessel

‘What is alive, what matters, what deserves our attention?’ asks Batten and Kamp duo

‘We are really stretching our questions about humanity’s place in the natural world‘

project info:

name: Beauty Seeker Seeker

designers: Batten and Kamp | @batten_and_kamp

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. See more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: Christina Vergopoulou | designboom

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