The “Amazing Oo & Aa Machine” emits approving and admiring noises at appropriate moments while her mind wanders. The “Amazing Oo & Aa Machine” makes it possible to contribute to the flow of admiration without expending the psychic energy necessary to maintain subjective separation from social expectations to provide emotional labor[1]: it mechanically does what needs to be done to hold upright productivity of cultural genius without expending any psychological involvement whatsoever. The prototype (Oo & Aa 1) functions with a hand pumped handle and an old-fashioned walkman and requires much highly skilled hand work before any gratifying sounds will emerge. The prototype emits the sounds of the famous fake orgasm scene of the film “When Harry met Sally”, (1989) tapering off oddly when one stops pumping the handle.
For newer electronically driven versions, the highly systematic expertise of product designers has been employed (Pleasing Machines, Glauer/Oder, 2017). Researching the effect of the sounds of fake orgasms in a wide variety of porn films led to an archive with a far greater selection of “approving and admiring noises at appropriate moments” becoming available. Therefore specific user needs could be nurtured more precisely and effectively. The hypothesis is that today, the requirement to admire the generally accepted unending canon of historic white male genius visible on German pedestals of art, culture and natural sciences is easily satisfied with the most generic and popular of faked film orgasm sounds. Presumably, a higher degree of complexity among more diverse contemporary emerging genius may consequently require more diversified forms of adoration and care.
The average museum visitor spends 17 seconds viewing a work of art[2]. The crying chair (habitus manipulator) interferes in regular museum traffic. Its soft sugar cube design attracts the viewer and entices him or her to sit down. Once the viewer stands up to leave, it begins to cry bitterly. When the viewer responds by sitting down again, it changes tone and emits pleasurable, gurgling sounds. It has been shown to induce let down in lactating women (Pfeifer/Glauer, Kunstraum Bethanien, 2011), whose bodies and breasts, habituated to producing milk in response to a verbal cues by a hungry child, here physically signaled a desire to soothe, feed and please the machine. (full article)
[1] “Researchers in this field observed that different professions require surface acting, or displays of emotions, to different extent. In particular, service jobs such as airline stewardess or waiters, place great value on emotional display such as „always smile at the customer,“ especially in contentious situations.” P. 47. Regulating Emotions, Culture, Social Necessity, and Biological Inheritance. Eds. Vandekercjhove, Scheme, Ismer; Jung, Kronast. Malden, MA, 2008.
[2] “They reported a median viewing time of 17 seconds.” June 3, 2014, PLOS. Art in Time and Space: Context Modulates the Relation between Art Experience and Viewing Time. 2014, David Breiter, Marcos Nadal, Helmut Leder, Raphael Rosenberg. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4043844/