NEWS and general 'housekeeping'

New projects have kept regular updates and new posts at bay...

However, in the mean time, there is news from the Lost and Foundry Studios in Oakland California, home to two of our favorite artists, Nemo Gould and Jeremy Mayer. An open house and new exhibition entitled, Natural Selection will be held on May 12th with the opening reception the day before.

New works will be displayed as well as the studios of Jeremy Mayer and Jesse Small being open for exploring. (I wish I was going to be in California then) I'm sure it will be a fantastic show.

The Up-cycled Art of Gabriel Dishaw

Working with metal and mechanical objects has been a passion of Gabriel Dishaw since his early teens. Eventually developing into an art practice and philosophy surrounding the up-cycling of discarded electronic and mechanical 'junk', Dishaw finds an outlet for his creative expression that, according to him "both helps me and the environment".

Sourcing found objects from abandoned typewriters, adding machines and old computers, Dishaw painstakingly assembles his creations, wrapping and stitching the items together using metal wire.

Fembot

Photo: Coleman Norris

According to his artist statement "I begin each sculpture with an idea of how can I take these found pieces of useless metal and insignificant objects and create something that everyone can understand and relate to. I find myself looking at ordinary mechanical items to see how I could turn that something, into something else not originally intended for that use."

Mickey Skull

 

Angel of Light

Shiva

You can find more of Gabriel Dishaw's work on his website gabrieldishaw.squarespace.com

Christopher Conte's 'PRECOG' & 'Scarlett'

Precognative - 2010

Photo © 2010 Dennis Blachut

PRECOG triggers Uncanny Valley type unease as the organic and inorganic world collide. We are forced to recognize something altogether familiar, yet eerily menacing, and cannot help but ponder if we are gazing at an ancestor of our future demise. A combination of custom fabricated and found object construction, PRECOG features an embedded Ipod Nano which projects subtle video (or visions) onto the lenses of each of the three eyes. The full color source video is mechanically broken down into the three additive primary colors. (RedGreenBlue)

 'Scarlett' - 2011

Another sublime creation from Christopher Conte entitled Scarlett, was featured in the show "Conjoined", curated by Chet Zar, at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, California. Christopher's work has a (literal) polish and finish that makes them look like fully functional production pieces that one might expect to see wandering around in search of some fresh oil... This may explain why he has sold every piece he has ever made.

Eric Joyner's Big Bang Theory

Jungle Trek

Eric Joyner's 'Jungle Trek' (see above) has taken him some pretty interesting places, though perhaps none more visible than the hit CBS sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory'. You may recognize some of Erics work adorning the walls of Sheldon and Leonard's apartment. (see below)

Caught Again - 2008

 'Caught Again' hangs on Leonard's bedroom wall, above his bed, and 'The Final Blow' (below) hangs on the wall of their living room.

The Final Blow - 2003

Let's hope this is the start of a trend and the producers of 'The Big Bang Theory' stop by botShots and get inspired to add more of the amazing robot art featured.

www.ericjoyner.com

Happy New Year, again...

Well it's that time of year again and a whole year since I've last updated botShots. I am very sorry for this lapse and resolve to pick up right where i left off and not let another year go by without adding to this growing repository of fantastic robot related art. I have a backlog of content to add and new work is always being created that needs to be seen.

With that said I hope you will forgive my 'extended vacation' and continue to explore the fantastic world of robot art with us in the future. Watch this space. I'm back and with resolve. I hope your holidays and New Years were excellent and I look forward to resuming botShots with a new found motivation and rekindled enthusiasm.

2011... The Year of the Bot?

Happy Holidays and New Year!!

Michael Mew was kind enough to send this Holiday greeting to BotShots so I thought I'd pass it on, along with our best wishes to all our readers in the new year. Stay tuned to see what we have in store for the coming year. Brand new shiny (and not so shiny) Robots... Yay!

Nemo Gould @ Nemomatic pt. 2

'Praying Mantis - 2009 (Photos: Sibila Savage)

The amazing Mr. Nemo Gould is at it again. Crafting stunning sculptures out of found objects and recovered materials and continuing to blaze a trail in the world of RecTech, kinetic sculpture, robot art, recycling and creative expression.

(If I am gushing it's because I really love his work - and he's a really nice guy too, which is always nice...)

His works inspire wonder and fascination from materials that, before he got his masterful mits on, were destined to crowd our growing landfills.

His well trained eye sees what the rest of us mistake as worthless trash and his brain instructs his hands to fashion his fantastic visions, elevating the previous scrap to powerful statements of beauty and value, where none existed before.

His art informs us that our aesthetic tastes are fooled by broken metal and a bit of rust. Once polished, joined and re-configured, it's aesthetic worth is unmistakable.

'The Boogeyman' - 2009 (Photo: Cameron Platt)

'The Boogeyman' detail - 2009 (Photos: Cameron Platt)


'Bake-O-Lite' - 2009 (Photo: Sibila Savage)


'Bake-O-Lite' detail - 2009 (Photo: Sibila Savage)


'Psychos-O-Matic' - 2009 (Photo: Cameron Platt)
by: Nemo Gould
(Posted with Artist Permission)

www.nemomatic.com

Art and Science - Ties that bind...

I have been less prolific with my posts of late... they will be starting up more regularly again soon...

Until then, some brain candy....

True science investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as the people of a given time and society consider most important. Art transmits these truths from the region of perception to the region of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy
(1828-1910)

(Possibly explains why good robot art makes me so emotional :) )

Emek: Psychedelic Meets Post-industrial - Pt.2

Award winning rock and roll poster artist Emek draws much of his inspiration from the culture, and of course counter-culture, of his parent's sixties. He himself missed that decade, although you'd never know it by looking at a lot of his art. With both his parents artists and sharing, not only their 'creative' and 'talent' genes but also, their music and other influences, he was uniquely suited or perhaps destined for the work he does now.

This helps explain the 'psychedelic' side but not exactly the 'industrial' and 'robo-mechanical' aspects to many of his works. This side of him seems more a mystery, as to it's origins, yet he makes no secret of his love of melding the mechanical with the organic, crafting surreal and fantastical images from his rich imagination and infusing them with his, often ironic, sometimes sardonic, sense of humor and social commentary.

'Evolution - Go Back'

'Coheed and Cambria' - Gig Poster


'SpeakerBot/SpeakerGirl' for Erica Badu


Original Artwork for Red Hot Chili Peppers


Original Artwork for Tool


Album cover for Les Rita Mitsouko


Album cover for Les Rita Mitsouko


'Last Picnic'
by Emek

(Posted with Artist Permission)

Part 3 will follow (in a future feature) and contain additional works from Emek, including an animation and in-progress illustrations as well as a preview of an upcoming feature on Emek's father, also an artist interested in robots and machines in art.

www.emek.net

Will the 'real' Paul Hoc please stand up...

"Paul Hoc is not a robot."

This is in fact a quote from Paul Hoc's very own web page at Object Graphik.
Paul Hoc is not a robot. I humbly beg to differ. Not because it sounds like it should be printed on a T-shirt or the rally-cry of the obsessed fans of the 'real' Paul Hoc, an American painter of the 1950's but because Paul Hoc is, most definitely, a robot.

Why do I make such a claim, when even his designers/creators say differently?

To quote pioneering roboticist Joseph Engelberger "I can't define a robot, but I know one when I see one." (which incidentally is why there is no definition of Robot supplied on BotShots).

Created and designed by POB Technology and the artists at Object Graphik, of France, for the 2008 Saint Etienne International design biennial, Paul Hoc physically traverses paper and canvas to create intricate, geometiric, illustrations born of digital code and mathematical algorithms.



(Posted with Artist(s) Permission)

www.objectgraphik.com

Reuben Margolin: Art, Math and Motion

While Californian artist Reuben Margolin does not exactly make 'robots', he is (forgive me) making waves that have implications and applications in both art and robotics.

His creative impulses include drawing, painting, furniture and even rolling-vehicle making, yet it is his mastery of kinetic sculpture, natural materials and motions, analogue controls (in a digital world) and theatrically dramatic presentations, often hypnotically captivating, that required his inclusion in this gallery.

'Magic Wave'

This is one of the biggest and most complex examples of kinetic art in the world. The 'Magic Wave' is an aluminum grid suspended by 256 cables and the overhead mechanics contain 3000 pulleys, 5 kilometers of steel cable, and 9 motors. In all more than 50000 parts. It was a collaboration with the staff at Technorama Swiss Science Center and displays wave characteristics of Wavelength, Amplitude and Frequency.

Video of 'Magic Wave' from the opening show at Technorama


'Round Wave'


Detail 'Round Wave'


Video of 'Round Wave'
Video by: Michele Orlando


'Spiral Wave' by Reuben Margolin
Video by Michele Orlando

(Posted with Artist Permission)

The following video for MAKE: TV is a fascinating profile of Reuben, his work and his process. I found it not only compelling but, more importantly, inspiring - as an artist and as a lover of art. It is included here in the hopes it has the same effect on others.