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Read our previous issues ART The Gallery;
By Wickham Boyle
The EYEBEAM space is the cavernous former site of DIA art and is a wonderful place to wander and take in a wide array of art or, in this case, “ArtBots,” a new term coined for this show, meaning robots that are art. Many of the featured machines, I mean installations, were making art themselves and some had very heavy-handed explanations about how and where art begins and technology intervenes, or the lines between human and machine, art and reality. However the best robots were exciting extensions of humanity or playful reflections of humans at our best. A consortium of techno heads and artists with the Brooklyn-based, League of Electronic Musical Robots (LEMUR), is dedicated to developing robotic musical instruments. They had four on display: TibetBot, robotic singing Tibetan bowls; GuitarBot a four-string instrument where the frets moved and really did play some very ethereal sounds; !rBot an unpronounceable name, much like when Prince took on a symbol to confound his producers. But !rBot is a series of 25 eggs with beans inside, set on the ends of long vibrating rods. The sound was like a strange congress of rattlesnakes quivering overhead. The final instrument was ShivaBot a large statue with a massive wig that looked like a Saturday Nite Live version of Shiva the Indian Goddess. She was supposed to drum but her musical talent was dwarfed by her outfit. Isn’t that often the case in modern music? LEMUR is headed by Eric Singer and the group really does take the synthesis of art and technology very seriously and is creating sounds and music that can truly be described as wonderful and haunting. Other note worthy robots were those drawing, whether with the impulse coming from the neurons from rat cortexes or from programs drawn from computers, most of the drawings were concentric ink creations that looked like a more evolved version of spin art, but not unbeautiful. There was also an ecological robot that carried plants on a small cart. The robot systematically moved the plants around the gallery to find the best sources of light and water. Very cool. There was a series of shoes — Joan and David pumps to men’s brogues — that could be set to tapping when the observer stepped onto footprints. This installation was much loved by a group of blind visitors who excitedly set the feet to tapping as they clapped approval. Also an installation of sculptural art that responded by putting the viewer into the art when it sensed you ‘watching”. The 24th installation was upstairs in a private salon and was called the Tickle Salon designed by Dutch artists Erwin Driessens and Maria Verstappen. Here a robot, with what looked like a tassel from my grandmother’s curtain tie backs, is programmed to find the edges of the body under its care. A small child lay down on the table replacing a full-grown man and the robot deftly adjusted its tickle range to meet the parameter of the child from the broad sweeps it had been using for the man. If you like to be tickled, or as we call it in my house, “an itch rub” then this service may be for you. Appointments were being made for later in the festival for actual muscle rubs using the same technology but offered in private sessions with a robot called guided machine that resembles a small carpet cleaner that would roll with some force over your back, or shoulders depending on what you program it to do. The shows were packed and that may auger a return with a longer run, but above are some sites for you to experience these on your own. |
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