Human Browser at Customs House

With nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, I was at the Customs House lobby area reading newspapers and using my laptop. A nice-looking girl with headphones came over and started talking to me. I tried to respond, but she's not making much sense. She's speaking in complete sentences, but I have no idea what she's talking about. Then I noticed a tiny webcam positioned on her right shoulder. She's also got a backpack on. Aha, must be a laptop inside doing playback and/or recording. I let her rant for a few more minutes, trying to figure out the source of her ramblings. Wondering when her stream-of-consciousness monologue will end, so I can go back to my laptop, I said to her, "I don't think you can hear me." It was then that she asked for my name. I answered, and she incorporated my name into her monologue. So she can hear me. Good thing I didn't say anything bad about her. After a while, she left me alone, and picked on other unsuspecting visitors.

It was only later that I found out that the girl is actually a Human Browser. It's part of the Esquisse Yourself art and design exhibition being held at the Customs House. According to SMH: "In the Human Browser by French artist Christophe Bruno, the viewer became the search engine query without touching a computer. This was possible through an actor who carried a microphone, headphones and webcam and was linked wirelessly to Bruno in France. As the visitor talked to the actor, Bruno watched the conversation, typed questions and comments into Google and a software program he developed vocalised the search results and transmitted them to the actor's headphone. She, in turn, blurted out the results in full, including URLs, numbers and punctuation."

One other exhibit that caught my attention was the circular ping pong table with a revolving net.