Certain consumer drones (Spark) can be operated in Hand Gesture mode. Once calibrated the drone recognizes the palm of ones hand. If you then swipe your extended arm to the left, the drone flies to the left, swipe the extended arm to the right, the drone flies to the right. Raise the extended palm up and down to adjust the drone’s altitude. You can signal to the drone’s camera eye, when it should take a picture by placing your thumb and index fingers into an L shape to form a rectangle (frame of a film).
In this experiment we wanted to test if the palm of our hand could be recognized and “understood” by the drone’s eye when the palm was covered by a hand puppet. In other words: Could the drone be conrolled by a puppet?
The Guan Yu glove puppet was the only character available for this experiment, because it is the only one we own. Master Wong Fai gifted it to our the second or third time we visited him in his studio.
Guan Yu was deified as early as the Sui dynasty (581–618), and is still worshipped today as a bodhisattva in Buddhist tradition and as a guardian deity in Chinese folk religion and Taoism. He is also held in high esteem in Confucianism.
In Hong Kong, a shrine to Guan Yu can be found in every police station. Though by no means mandatory, Chinese police officers worship and pay respect to him. Although seemingly ironic, members of the triads and Heaven and Earth Society worship Guan Yu as well. Statues used by triads tend to hold the halberd in the left hand, and statues in police stations tend to hold the halberd in the right hand. This signifies which side Guan Yu is worshipped, by the righteous people or vice versa.
Guan Yu appears in Chinese operas such as Huarong Trail, Red Cliffs, and other excerpts from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His costume is a green military opera uniform with armour covering his right arm and the knees of his pants. The actor’s face is painted red with a few black lines, to represent honour and courage. He also wears a long three-section black beard made of yak hair and carries the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. Traditionally, after the show ends, the actor has to wash his face, burn joss paper, light incense, and pray to Chinese deities.