Rascals Summer Processes 2011

                 Among New Media artists today, a community has emerged in recent years that is forging a new classification within the genre that is comprised of Robotics and Automata, otherwise known as self-operating machinery. Exploring the meaning of these works requires looking backwards and examining the origins and history of Robotics, Automata, and Art History so that we might put into context both the conceptual and social implications of the work to further examine how the work reflects the human condition through human representation.

I  tried to return home today with a vengeance to make my fish fly by tomorrow. I abandoned almost all the work I did yesterday in class and upgraded to a new box at home this evening. It is easier for me to concentrate, especially on a subject that doesn’t come easy, when I am all alone. The downside of this however, is that I am without the guidance of Fred and Jen, and so I decided to go a little more slowly and try to use my common sense of my mechanical box. You’ll have to stay tuned to see my feeble attempt.

Today was another difficult day for me at the studio. I am not of the mechanical intelligence variety. Graphs, numbers, programs, anything technical is very very very difficult for me. While I find the history of automata extremely fascinating, designing and building them is a very frustrating task for me. I have a difficult time seeing even five steps doing the line. But, nevertheless, I’ll have this fish moving by tomorrow.

My dark cloud. Today was a dark day of frustration for me. Had Jen and Fred’s enthusiasm for building these robots not been as high as it were, I may have just committed Hari Kari. Their energy was truly infectious, and I found myself saying ” Give me a glass or a shot of whatever it is they got going ” While I wanted to share their enthusiasm, I generally am not wired to think in the manner in which we were working today and so I struggled. However, I do feel I grasped, and understood some of the fundamental concepts contained within the mechanics of design enough that I should be able to utilize some of the knowledge I gained in class today and I hope it will come in real handy in one of my future artistic endeavors. It would be really great if I could incorporate my illustrations into these concepts.

Some of the work being done today with Automata is truly incredible and mind boggling. The work of Theo Jansen left an especially indelible impression on me. His beach walking kinetic sculptures that are propelled by the wind absolutely blew me away. What was so fascinating about them for me was that their movements seemed so naturalistic, they not only seemed to be mocking the movements of insects, they seemed to be giant insects!! They seemed truly alive. This was an inanimate object? I felt unsettled. Whether or not this was a good thing remains to be seen. But, nevertheless. Theo Jansen, very cool.

If I was shown Jansen’s creatures from a distance and had I not been told what it was that I was looking at, I  probably would have assumed it was a living, breathing mammal. Additionally, had the exterior of the sculpture been covered with some kind of latex skin or fur, you would have a hard time convincing me it wasn’t alive.

researching and writing…just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

image by William Heath Robinson

http://heathrobinson.org/copyright/index.htm

*used without permission (only once).

SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES, or SRL is a collective of artists based out of San Francisco that create gigantic robots bent on destruction. The group was started in 1975 by Mark Pauline, who is it’s primary member. They utilize large scale construction equipment and spare parts to to create these robots/war machines. In their performances they employ pyrotechnics in their rare larger-than-life performances that are unforgettable and literally explosive.

Criticisms: Some critics say their work celebrates violence, and that they are condoning and perpetuating the violence and alienation that is dominant in our culture today.

SRL self describes itself as a group of  “creative technicians dedicated to redirecting the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry and science away from their typical manifestations in practicality or product.”  (http://www.srl.org)

LINKS to work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_3Uzw1EZnU

*warning the video posted below is somewhat graphic and audibly loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0g1g__0uo&feature=related

NEMOMATIC

NEMOMATIC is a 36 year old Kinetic artist, based out of Oakland, CA. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1998, and his MFA from U.C. Berkeley in 2000.

Nemomatic’s name comes from a love of The Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strip by Winsor McCay (early 1900s). His work seems to reflect the same whimsical fantasy of the Little Nemo comic strip, and is also influenced heavily by science fiction. He utilizes humor, insight, and his knowledge about robotic science to transform found objects into robots and other creatures that seem both familiar and new because he uses objects that we can recognize. One of the main objectives of his work is to communicate and instill a youthful energy into his audience by intentionally making figures that fascinate and surprise us, but still offer up commentary on the human condition.

By doing this he introduces to the viewer multiple examples of some of the dualities that exist within the work that are made evident by the choice of materials  he works with. The implementation of certain materials, like mechanics and found objects, provides the framework for the meaning behind the work.

He states “Incorporating consumer detritus with my own symbology, they are the synthesis of our manufactured landscape and our tentative place within it– strong and frail at the same time” (nemomatic.com)

Materials:  wood, spare parts, found objects, mechanical instruments and objects.

LINKS TO WORK:

http://www.nemomatic.com

http://www.devicegallery.com/galleries/gould/gould.html

SHORT VIDEOS:

Nowhere Fast, short video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBQsUbbQK0&feature=player_embedded

This piece is about self-abuse. The robot is clubbing himself in the head while trying to outrun the clubbing. But what the poor tin can doesn’t realize, is that it is the clubbing itself that is enabled him to pedal! The impact of the club causes the power button to be triggered. This constant powering on and off, on and off keeps up the momentum of the pedaling by the smidgen of electricity that is being released by the original appliance.

Party of One, short video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBQsUbbQK0&feature=player_embedded

INTERVIEWS/PRESS:

Upper Playground Interview

http://www.nemomatic.com/nemomatic/press_blog/Entries/2009/1/31_Interview_for_Upper_Playground.html

http://www.greenmuze.com/art/interviews/836-the-sculptor-nemo-gould.html

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FRAMEWORK: Mechanical objects or parts of mechanical objects become the framework for the meaning making, in this case, commentary on the psychology and social psychology of humans.

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WEBSITES CITIED:

http://www.nemomatic.com/nemomatic/press_blog/Entries/2009/1/31_Interview_for_Upper_Playground.html

http://www.greenmuze.com/art/interviews/836-the-sculptor-nemo-gould.html

http://www.appliedkineticarts.com/category/nemo-gould/page/2/

ARTIST WEBSITE:

http://www.nemomatic.com

I found the reading to be a tremendously poetic and philosophical take on diagrams. I can appreciate and relate to the notion that our perceptions of the world and the objects in it are partially defined by both social and personal perception.

The reading made me ask the following questions; What innate characteristics do we all have in common then? If language is varied based on culture or ethnicity, couldn’t the concept of space and/or perspective be culturally or socially influenced and not universal as well? And if so, then what universalities do we all share then? What “imitations” are in fact universal?

It seems when studying and developing philosophical statements about scale and the hierarchy of space in Diagrams versus how they actually appear in reality, then these questions must be discussed. After all, do all cultures and the art they make recognize the Albertian theory of distance point perspective?  For example, ritual masks from the Benin empire or hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt? I would argue that the influence of culture and the context of time can also skew ones perspective of the world greatly. Even the definition of what space is and how it functions, and in what language we speak about it, all are contributing factors to our understanding of its purpose or meaning.

I also appreciated that one can tailor the information presented in a diagram to be geared toward a certain type of learner. Like Figure 16 in the reading in which musical notes are featured in the diagram for the auditory or haptic learner. I like that a diagram is a place where the “verbal, graphic, and mathematical commentaries can coexist”.

What I didn’t like but can appreciate was the text stating that our world is shifting “from the text based expositions of observable events to mathematical functions and graphic notations”. The fact that we are now utilizing this new (not so new) identity with technology and the mathematical equation to run military campaigns is a disconcerting thought that I am struggling with. I find it both comforting and unsettling at the same time, and am confused if this is good or bad progress.

My artwork has always seemed to reflect the vivacity one might come to expect with an alias such as Rascal. I am always seeking to communicate in my work my sense of humor, colorful energy, and playful spirit. Additionally there is almost always overtones of social or political commentary in the work I do. The most important objective is to be entertaining and pleasing to the eye but still be thought provoking and disconcerting. In this sense,  it has a charming humorous comical quality to it that invites the viewer in, but also takes their attention to someplace they were not necessarily expecting to go.

I am inspired  and influenced by a multitude of different sources such as individual artists, art movements, art history, films, music, memories, books, comic books, cartoons, architecture, nature, events in history, and stories both told and read. I traditionally like to work with a combination of digital media, watercolor, and ink, but find my use of different forms of media continuing to expand while studying here at Mass Art.