Frank Fietzek
«Subjective Machine»

The 'subjective machine' is a compact lattice frame housing a micro-computer and sensors, with a monitor built into its narrow side. 'The machine forms an opinion about its current situation, using data from its sensors, and expresses itself in writing to this effect over the monitor.' (Frank Fitzek)
The object is a 'communication machine' that does not connect two (or more) people, but rather makes completely self-sufficient statements 'about itself' in relation to its surroundings. What exactly the sensors perceive, and in what way a 'mechanical feeling' arises from these impressions, remains fairly incomprehensible to the observer. The statement that a situation is pleasant, baffling when delivered by a computer, makes one aware of the absurd projections and personifications that occur in our dealings with these machines that have more and more become opposite numbers, and to whom we are all too ready to ascribe human attributes in our inability to understand their complex functioning.