Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance.[1][2][3] After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California.[4]
Since its inception in 1978 SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians and technical creatives dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special-effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators.
History
SRL was founded by Mark Pauline in November, 1978. The first show was "Machine Sex" on February 25, 1979.[5]
Throughout the 1980s Pauline was joined by a number of machine artists including Matt Heckert and Eric Werner. Matt Heckert's main work in the group centered on the acoustic and musical parts of performance. He left the group in 1988[6] to follow his musical interests, developing the award-winning Mechanical Sound Orchestra (MSO)[7] which has toured the USA and Europe extensively.
As of late 2012, SRL conducted over 50[8] shows throughout the world, mostly in the Western United States. SRL shows are essentially performance art installations acted out by machines rather than people. The interactions between the machines are usually noisy, violent, and destructive. A frequent tag-line on SRL literature is "Producing the most dangerous shows on Earth." A side-effect of the group's activities is frequent interactions with governmental and legal authorities.
Early performances featured animal skins and cadavers animated by mechanical endoskeletons; recent performances feature large and technically advanced robots that reflect a paranoid militaristic imagination. In the SRL workshop, a high value is placed on found or re-purposed materials and machines. An example is The Big Arm, a telematically controlled robot made from an abandoned back-hoe that drags itself around by its "arm."
SRL is considered[who?][9] to be a pioneer of industrial performing arts, developing upon groundwork laid by e.g. Jean Tinguely. Many SRL members have gone on to be involved in other avant-garde artistic projects such as the Cacophony Society, the Suicide Club, The Haters, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Robochrist Industries, People Hater, Seemen, Burning Man, and robotics projects such as Battlebots and Robot Wars.
SRL has been praised as being one place where many women have had access to machine workshop tools. A RE-Search book is planned; events have been held discussing this theme.[10]
List of SRL devices
SRL devices are usually given interesting names, such as:[11]
- Flame Hurricane
- The V1 - a replica of a WWII V1 engine
- Hand-O'-God - a giant spring-loaded hand, cocked by an air cylinder
- The Pitching Machine - a device which fires 2x4 pieces of lumber
- Shockwave Cannon - a device which fires a shockwave of air, shattering glass remotely with the force, constructed similarly to the shockwave-based Wunderwaffen anti-bomber device or the so-called hail cannon.
- Wheelocopter - a spinning machine which applies the principles of rotorcraft to a two-dimensional plane
- Six-Legged Running Machine
- High Pressure Air Launcher - originally developed by NASA for use in avalanche control; fires beer cans filled with plaster using a CO2 charge
Their performances are also given colorful names, such as The Unexpected Destruction of Elaborately Engineered Artifacts, Survival Research Laboratories Contemplates a Million Inconsiderate Experiments, and A Calculated Forecast of Ultimate Doom: Sickening Episodes of Widespread Devastation Accompanied by Sensations of Pleasurable Excitement.[11]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ V. Vale (ed), "Industrial Culture Handbook", Re/Search Publications, 1983
- ↑ Mark Pauline NNDB.
- ↑ Petaluma. Survival Research Laboratories. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
- ↑ V. Vale (ed), "Industrial Culture Handbook", Re/Search Publications, 1983, page 40.
- ↑ Matt Heckert official website
- ↑ Munich Samba, Golden Nica 1997. Ars Electronica.
Munich Samba, Golden Nica 1997. Radio report.
Stocker, Gerfried; Schöpf, Christine (1997). FleshFactor: Informationsmaschine Mensch, Springer Wien. - ↑ SRL Chronological Shows and Installations
- ↑ see e.g. Vale, "industrial Culture Handbook"
- ↑ "Tentacle Session #35 : Sunday 21 July 2002 - The Women of SRL". laughingsquid.org.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lucas, Adam (1995). "Mark Pauline - The Art Of War". 21-C Magazine.
