Chico MacMurtrie
"Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada"
Univerity of Manitoba Gallery
March 30-April 27 2012
Workshop Dates: March 20-30, 2012
Opening Reception: March 30, 2012 8:00pm
10-15 Canadian artists + students will take part in Chico Macmurtrie's ten day Workshop "How To Make Robotic Performing Machines and Robotic Environments" to create the Inflatable robots, which will allow participants to get involved in all of the aspects of completing this complex installation titled Inflatable Robots in Canada, including: designing new inflatables, sewing new inflatables, gluing new inflatables, installing feedback sensors, programming max, and other midi software, hooking up pneumatic systems, wiring, modeling components on the computer, using rhino, lamina design and solid works, welding aluminum parts. Artists of all types and technicians interested in art can come together each bringing their talent and hopefully walking away with new incite and skill to contribute to there own work. After the installation opens at Uof M Art School, the Workshop will continue to introduce new elements to the installation each day. Chico Macmurtie is one of the worlds leading artists using robotic technologies.
Chico MacMurtrie + Anamorphic Robot Works
Chico MacMurtrie is the founder and Artistic Director of Amorphic Robot Works. Chico MacMurtrie formed Amorphic Robot Works in 1992, as a collaborative group of artists, hardware software engineers, designers and technitions to develop Robotic Performance work. This work spanning over 20 years has been an ongoing endeavour to uncover the primacy of movement and sound. Each machine is inspired or influenced, both, by modern society, and by what the artists physically experience and sense. Since inception ARW have travelled to 17 countries finding new inspiring aspects of the human condition and bringing this evolving art form to places that have never experienced it before. 6 years ago, in response to both the logistic and artistic limitations inherent in the use of heavy, rigid materials in sculptural robotics, MacMurtrie has created a new generation of interactive, robotic work entitled The Inflatable Bodies. In place of the cumbersome metal found in standard robotics, these robotic performers arise from high- tensile, inflatable, fabric "skeletons" which are shapeless until inflated with air. The possibilities for range and kind of movement are as broad as that for muscle and bone, but with little of the mass, and even fewer mechanical constraints. The unusual mechanical ability to relax the “bone” of the Inflatable Bodies creates movements that conventional robotics cannot, and results in an unprecedented range of purposeful, flexible motion. The machines are capable of an astonishing natural elegance: moving and interacting with live performers and audience with a nearly proprioceptive self-awareness in an uncanny portrayal of some of the qualities of a living system. Employing pioneering robotic and construction techniques, the 'inflatable body' sculpture explores the parallels that exist between humans and machines, and the fascination with a machine's ability to depict the most primal aspects of the human condition.
