Zegmi are one of the final projects for the Hong Kong PolyU School of Design’s Embedded Interactions Class. The installation explores the expression of animate behaviors through interactive sculpture.

Each unit of the installation reacts to those that walk through and interact with it, either shrinking away, as in fear, or fighting back by unsheathing spikes concealed within the unit. Users are given no hints as to what triggers each response, and so are left wondering. The project’s goal is to elicit emotion from those interacting with it.