Umamimi: the wind of heaven blows between the gentle flicks of my robotic horse ears

Abstract

“The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears” (anonymous, widely attributed as a proverb of Arabic origin). ‘Umamimi’ is a project based at the intersection between Computational Anthrozoology (North, 2018) and Horse-Computer Interaction (North, 2016). Umamimi means ‘horse ears’ or ‘horse eared’ and the author has used this name to reflect the Japanese tradition called ‘Kemonomimi’ (animal eared), which is found both in manga and anime. The Umamimi robotic horse ears are a prototype device, allowing the author to explore what it means to be a horse, using expressive ear movements to communicate. Umamimi’s ear movements are fully customisable via software programming. Subtleties of ear movement expression may be modelled, to reflect the varying personalities found in individual horses. Different profiles could be developed, with variations in the speed, range, frequency (of events) and degree of synchronisation displayed in the ear movements. The author will describe his autoethnographic work, which reflects on his experiences as an ‘embedded horse’, spending time within his own small herd of domesticated horses. How did it feel to communicate with horses through the movements of robotic ears and what was the nature of the resulting ear-mediated horse-human interactions?