Keiko Takahashi, Meter Crawler, 2008–2013. Installation view, Like A Second Nature, Berlin, 2013. Photograph: Michael Knoll. Source: Ars Electronica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Video: early documentation published by Keiko Takahashi, showing the blue-housing version. The photograph shows the yellow version exhibited in Berlin in 2013. Vimeo.
A tape measure extends a few centimetres of steel, catches its hook against the surface and draws its housing forward. Repeated, this movement is enough to reveal a snail-like gait within an ordinary tool. In Meter Crawler, measuring becomes a way of moving. Our attention shifts from the instrument’s precision to the behaviour of a small creature: what gesture makes us begin to imagine life in things?
Location : Documented context: Like A Second Nature, Volkswagen Automobil Forum Unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany, 6 June–28 July 2013. Project begun in 2008; archival documentation.
Artist : Born in 1969 in Kanagawa, Japan, Keiko Takahashi is a new-media artist trained in painting. Her practice connects computer graphics, interactive systems and everyday objects animated through behaviours that evoke living things.
Sources : Nico Kok, 30.09.2026 ; Ars Electronica ; KHM.