Angels of History
Materials: Robot vacuums, Projectors, Security cameras
Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History" was the last essay he wrote before committing suicide in 1940. In it he introduces the concept of the “angel of history.” The angel is turned around with its wings caught in the “storm of progress,” blown backward into the future. Condemned to witness the past as it unfolds, the Angel cannot stop the storm's impact.
Individually, we are our own angels of history. We cannot see the future. Psychologically, we have no choice but to calibrate the future in terms of the past.
Sucking air and material as they move through space, robot vacuums are like us. The camera is the witness of history, and video projection will be the psychological projection we project onto the future to calibrate it in terms of what we have already seen. A projector and camera facing opposite directions will be mounted on each robot vacuum. The live feed from the camera facing backward will be transmitted through the projector facing forward. The robot will project where it has been onto where it is going, like we do. With multiple robot vacuums roaming a space, projections from one will be caught up in the video capture of another, forming feedback loops. These feedback loops reify how our perceptions are distorted reflections on the projections of others.
