Truck Slot Surprise, an award-winning project of the Mixed Media Art Competition “Read for Life” in 2013, consists of a slot machine of words that challenges people to create a quick, catchy quote from random words they receive. The prototype uses a simple motor and mechanism to make it function like a slot machine that generates random results. Viewers push the red button and wait for the result.
The Mixed Media Art Competition “Read for Life” is organized by Art4D magazine and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. It was exhibited at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) and goes on to show in public schools around Bangkok, Thailand.
Truck Slot Surprise is inspired by the appearance of ten-wheeled trucks in Thailand. Thai truck drivers like to decorate their vehicles with colorful lights, gadgets, and quote stickers. The uniqueness of pattern and style in this community reflects on an aspect of sub-culture in Thailand. Quote stickers are a very common decoration on these huge trucks; their content can range from sexual to inspirational. This can be drawn on the trucks as permanent decoration, using high-quality color made specific for cars, or take the form of tiny stickers that anyone can buy from street stores.
Interaction
In this prototype, a participant needs to look for their particular result in the back of the truck. There are stickers that look exactly the same as those in the slot machine, so the participants can find their words and use them to create any kind of sentence, phrase, or expression.
This artwork creates an activity for people to use their experiences, ideas, knowledge, and linguistic creativity. It reveals the experiences and backgrounds of each participant and also implicitly shows how much ‘reading’ is important.
Tuang T 