PINOCCHIO'S LUGER (2019)
Materials: Decommissioned Pistole Parabellum 08, steel plate, electronics
Dimensions: 14 x 14 x 10 in
Collaborator (Programming): Kostadin Ilov
Pinocchio’s Luger is a reflection on the ambiguous nature of truth and the widespread dissemination of false information in today’s media. This satirical piece was created by disabling a German Luger p08 gun and fitting it with an elongating barrel, inspired by Carlo Collodi’s famous fictional character, Pinocchio. Like it’s namesake, the Luger’s proboscis visually portrays the truthfulness of a statement. This mechanical work is programmed to be driven by a real-time data feed from the fact-checking website, PolitiFact.
Each press of the play button draws forth one of the ten latest fact-checks from PolitiFact. The graduated barrel extends or contracts in accordance with PolitiFact’s truth rating for a given statement. An internal lead screw and a stepping motor, controlled by a single-board computer running a Python script, drive the mechanical movement.
© 2019 Constantine Zlatev
