What if instead of forcing a robot to move based on my concept of perfect (humanlike) movement, I allowed it to do that to me?

I began this project as an exploration into mimicking human movement through robotics. However, I kept running into an issue: Choice, control, and ability for expression are all key elements of human movement in my mind, and these would all be very difficult for me to accurately assign to a robot. So I flipped the idea around. My body would be the physical component, and the ESP32 would be the brain, deciding when/how to move my mechanical elements. I wanted my code to be generative so that I would not know what movements were expected of me and the code itself would be making those decisions.

And thus, Puppeteer was born! It is constructed using wood, string, popsicle sticks, and 5 servos, controlled by an Arduino ESP32. The experience of giving it control over your hand is both satisfying and a little unsettling, and inspires reflection on how we conceptualize robotics and movement.