6B Robo - sound performances and the human-machine relationship
‘Skeletal Reflection’ is also, like Stelarc’s ‘Anatomical Exoskeleton’, a pneumaticly driven robot. Mark Ruch, managing director and tour manager from Amorphic Robot Works, expresses the choice of amplifying the beauty of the machine:
As there is a beauty and elegance in movement itself, there is equally potent an experience in watching a machine (human or organic in form), struggling to stand, attempting to throw a rock, or playing a drum. These primal activities, when executed by machines, evoke a deep and sometimes emotional reaction. It is the universality of emotional experience which intrigues us, and it is the contrapunctal use of machinery as artistic medium and organic movement as form which, perhaps ironically, combine to provoke these emotional reactions most readily (Ruch 2000).
But the robot doesn’t necessarily have to entail a more or less natural process to exhibit a ‘Primal Scream’ imitation of movement and sound. A machine could become more abstract as soon as art elements like sound, movement, visuals or light are more implicitly involved. The addition of the above mentioned art elements can make it possible to transform the machine into an extremely surreal artpiece as we can read about below:
The word ‘robotics’ can mean many things - and so can ‘art’. To some, robotics is about factory-automation systems - giant robotic welding arms and such. To others, including most ‘hobbyists’, a robot is autonomous and mobile, with wheels or legs, eyes or obstacle detectors, a gripper, and an on-board control and navigation system. Artists can use it in a much more general sense, which escapes easy definition (as does art). It can include everything from simple motorized sculptures to complex computer-controlled environments (Mann 2002).
