Mouth CTRLer

BY MICHELLE KORDA, FRANCESCA PERONA & LUCA ALESSANDRINI

The mouth has been a vital tool for completing ordinary tasks since the dawn of man, complementing hands in fulfilling everyday rituals. With the increasing integration of digital technologies in our daily lives, our physical mannerisms and cultural habits are adapting. Our colourful array of facial expressions are of little use in computer-related tasks, and our range of bodily gestures are reduced to repetitive tapping movements on flat screens.

Via a series of workshops, this project aimed to challenge the established methods of interfacing us with the digital world by re-integrating mouth-related gestures and facial expressions in human-computer interactions. A series of prosthetic interventions were designed to encourage the audience to actively explore the oral cavity. Connecting ‘mouthy’ expressions with ordinary screen-related tasks through embedded electronics, the devices invited people to question their standardised relationship with technology and to rediscover at the same time the mouth as extraordinary tool.