iheartmyart:

Stelarc, Exoskeleton, 1998

EXOSKELETON is a jerky and powerful 600kgm machine. It is stiff-jointed, requiring 18 pneumatic actuators to drive the 3 degree-of-freedom legs. It pounds and scrapes the ground and on concrete it can grind the surface and send up puffs of dust. In fact the impact of the legs striking the ground necessitated the wearing of shock-proof boots, one of the reasons the performer was clothed for the first time in about 30 years. But the robot does walk forwards and backwards with a kind of ripple gait and sideways left and right with a tripod gait. It can turn, squat and stand as well as sway from side to side. The body is positioned on a turntable that can rotate, adding another motion in the choreography of the machine. The body is a passenger but with an exoskeleton wrapped around its upper torso and magnetic sensors on each jointed segment, arm gestures can select the mode and direction of locomotion. This also makes the body visually more a part of the machine. The performance is simply a walking performance. In Bern at Dampfzentrale, as part of Cyborg Frictions, the event lasted about 45 minutes. When the audience comes into the space the artist climbs onto the robot and gets attached to the exoskelton by 2 assistants. The performance begins by initiating a stomping motion of the legs and then the walking begins. It’s largely improvised with the grid of lights overhead accommodating its position in the space. The machine is either walking out of the light into darkness, or out of the darkness into the light. No other pyrotechnics. As well as paying attention to the mode and direction of locomotion, the artist is also listening to the sounds. Composing the sounds means choreographing the movements of the machine. The compressed air sounds, relay switch clicks, and the impact of the legs hitting the ground are acoustically amplified. These sounds are augmented by the clicking and rotating actions of the large manipulator which extends the exoskeleton. Rhythmic loops of sounds can be generated by repetitive finger movements of the manipulator. As well, the switch signals are used to generate synthesised sounds to create a counterpoint to the industrial sounds of the robot.