Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada

CHICO MACMURTRIE 

Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada
University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery
March 30 – April 27 2012
Workshop Dates: March 20-30, 2012

EXHIBITION:

March 30- April 27
Video Pool Media Arts Centre, in collaboration with The University of Manitoba School of Art is pleased to present: Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada by New York based artist Chico MacMurtrie. Inflatable Architecture Intervention and the Cellular Hexagons are the most recent developments for live performance and installation. Inspired by cellular architecture and organic growth, these works offer a direct, visceral experience of the kinds of minuet geometric constructions that underlie all of life. Inflatable Architecture Intervention, like MacMurtrie`s earlier work, reveals that organic and inorganic forms are not mutually exclusive categories, but different moments of a shared continuum of form. Inflatable Robotic Arts in Canada represents an innovative development project implementing evolving technologies for the new generation of robotic sculpture and media arts.

PERFORMANCE:

MARCH 30, 2012, 4-7 PM
During the Inflatable Architecture Intervention performance, compressed air enters the artists bodysuit via a hose, his gestures are bringing to life these tubes as extensions of his own life force. The fabric begins to swell and inflate, accompanied by the syncopated respiration of the air valves. As the mass grows, a lattice of interlocking tubes starts to take shape. The expanding geometric structure interacts with the human body in a confrontational pas de deux choreography – each tube being capable of behaving like muscle and bone – and pushes the body of the artist around. Finally, all of the tubes reach their fully taut state and Inflatable Architecture Intervention resembles an airy, organically-inflected geometric structure. At the end of the performance, the artist frees himself, tube by tube, and exits the room, leaving Inflatable Architecture Intervention behind. 

WORKSHOP:

March 20-30, 2012
Canadian artists, students, engineers and technicians are invited to participate in a ten day workshop:  How to Make Robotic Performing Machines and Robotic Environments. Fifteen participants will be selected to assist Chico MacMurtrie to create a new generation of large scale inflatable robot sculptures, to be exhibited at The University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery.
Cellular Hexagons: the team will create all aspects of a computer controlled soft sculpture with multiple chambers that allow a continual metamorphosis of form. This Metamorphosis parallels the process of generation of life on the most fundamental level.
Inflatable Architecture Intervention: the team will create a specifically designed bodysuit, with integrated air controlled couplings. A series of inflatable fabric tubes, would literally plug into the artists performance. Participants will think critically about  robotic arts and question the connection between machine, performance and the human condition.

CHICO MACMURTRIE + AMORPHIC ROBOT WORKS:

Chico MacMurtrie is one of the worlds leading artists using robotic technologies to create movable sculpture. MacMurtrie was born in New Mexico in 1961 and is the founder and Artistic Director of Amorphic Robot Works (AWR) based in New York City.  MacMurtrie formed ARW in 1991 as a collective of artists, engineers and technicians creating robotic performances and installations. Amorphic Robot Works has won international recognition for its interactive and computer-controlled human and abstract machines and environments. 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 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 qualities of a living system. Employing pioneering robotic and construction techniques, the inflatable body sculptures explore 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. www.amorphicrobotworks.org

Video Pool Media Arts Centre is a nonprofit Artist-Run Centre dedicated to independent video, audio and computer integrated multimedia production, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
www.videopool.org Video Pool would like to acknowledge the support of our funders, especially: The Canada Council For The Arts: Visiting Foreign Artist Program; The University of Manitoba School of Art, Mary Reid, Al Poruchnyk and Paul Hess,  without which this exhibition would not be possible.