Concept
My piece this week was inspired by the recent Eid break we enjoyed. During the break, a couple of friends and I made the 5.5 hour road trip to Muscat, Oman, where we enjoyed a relaxing stay over a couple of nights. On the road trip itself, I took turns driving with a friend, who was a bit newer to driving than I was.
Navigating in the passenger seat really revealed the complexity of driving that had become a form of second-nature to me, after driving to high school almost every day since I turned 16 back in the US. Certain movements were inherently complex requiring a combination of precise motor muscle movements to be coordinated at the same time. For instance, turning in a roundabout is a hodgepodge of visual queues from oncoming traffic, a crescendoing breaking, mirror checks, precise wheel adjustments, and juggling the break and gas pedals with your feet. Once you’ve driven for a while, you begin to take for granted the muscle-memory you built up over years of experience.
This piece of art is a small encapsulation of some of those mechanisms–while reversing some of the expectations you may traditionally think of for automobiles. For instance, rather than turning a steering wheel, you turn the wheel wheel, powering on gas light. The potentiometer adjusts your servo motor (along with a blue light), which mimics the car’s wheel turns. Lastly, in case of emergency, you can always press the red button to sound the alarms and hopefully bail yourself out of trouble–honking the buzzer horn.
