Army of tiny robots grows in number and sophistication
Since our last "Robot Art" overview came out, these cute little bots multiplied like rabbits or Google spiders, and they all look good, so it's time for an update!
Most of these robot figures (often called "nerdbots") are made from found objects, purely for your esthetic appreciation - and yet one can't shake the feeling that they might one day come to life (as if in some Stephen King story) and invade your cubicle, making shrill R2D2 sounds and mounting attacks on, say, a hated monstrous copy machine in the corner.
Mike Rivamonte's metal sculptures are "interpretation of robots and spacemen capable of flight and mischief. Rare and collectible objects from all over are transformed to create expressive unique characters." -
Check out the whole army of them in this Flickr set. Being small, these adorable items are really quite affordable. Lipson Robotics joins the show with his mini-robot set:
...or at least, robots more humanlike in shape, having legs and even female curves. Brotron creator Greg Brotherton says that he strives to make "heroic icons", not just sculptures, investing ordinary (found) object with fantastic, sometimes diabolical, function.
You gotta love that robot lady's illuminated corset bra, featuring junked pieces of 1955 DeSoto Fireflite: (see our article Ladies and Robots for more ideas in this direction)
This is truly a classic - a "Rise of Discord" statue features almost Greek proportions and a riveted, highly evocative face...
His "Big Bots" are also enticing and sell very quickly:
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Stainless Steel Chickens
Scott Sauer makes "Scottoons": humorous, whimsical sculptures from found scraps of metal . With his exclusive permission, here are some highlights of his collection.:
That shining example of robotic design above is called a Munbot - a robot, or a bug zapper? Probably both.
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Faster than you can say "Leviton Vaporizer"... you will be dispatched in style
Time to cover some ray guns on DRB. Again. Yes we love them, so bear with us... Andy Hill was on a ray gun kick recently. Like with his Andybots and Saucerbots, retro-future was again his inspiration (along with recycling and reusing). His "Leviton Vaporizer" seem to have some steampunk influence, too:
Any self-respecting robot would love to shoot from these super-powered guns, but to do that he'd have to consult the Three Laws of Robotics (by Isaac Asimov). These laws are quite restrictive, so we figure there is little chance that a robot would fire up cannons like these. Still... think about it...
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And we finish with the very appropriate art by Italian illustrator PierLuigi Longo:
Octopus is a Greek word meaning 8 feet. As it is Greek, it shouldn't be written as Octopi. Only Latin words take 'i' for their plural. We should say octopuses, in the same way we should say platypuses, not platypi. :P
1) the first one seems to me a lot like the motion detector from Aliens- it's good to know such a device could actually work. Like the Aliens device tho', it'll will be interesting to see how useful it actually is.
2)they mentioned jetpacks, but failed to mention the best one yet; the Matin Jetpack.
The blue Mercedes 230G that hagns on the building was an attempt by the bulgarian Radomir Pepelov to lift the jeep on top of his block. He bet with another guy for 10 000$ that he can do it and possibly get in Guiness book of records. Here are somer more photos: http://www.chambersz.com/index.php/content/view/10852/136/ http://www.chambersz.com/index.php/content/view/10853/112/
Re: The cop car shots... both the shot of the cop car half in the house & the one with the two OPP cars crashed together are actually Canadian cops... first is Toronto police & the OPP cars are Ontario Provincial Police :)
The cop car shots ... both the shot of the cop car half in the house & the one with the two opp cars crashed together are actually Canadian cops...first is Toronto police & the OPP cars are Ontario Provincial Police.
'Imagining the Tenth Dimension', both the book and animation, are considered to be something he made up as he went along by serious physicists. Before buying the book check out the comments from people with a science background at Amazon.com. It looks pretty but it's not real science!
I second Eric's recommendation, and likewise Anon's word of caution. It is important to note that there are different *theories* of how higher dimensions are composed and related. Considering time as the 4th dimension is one theory, while spatial-symmetry relationships (right/left, normal/mirrored) form another approach. Rudy Rucker's book on the 4th dimension is a good intro to this.
When it rained, the female operators of Colossus would strip to their underwear and hang their clothes do dry beside the hot machine. The building became a popular destination for the military's teenage messenger boys. Possibly the first association of computers with p*rn.
Oh, not this again. Grace Hopper didn't invent the term "bug", as you can pretty clearly tell if you look up the scans of the relevant log page (with preserved bug!) that are available online, and imagine why a person might write "First known case of an actual bug!" next to it.
What happened was, of course, that "bug" was a well-established term at the time (as any sufficiently detailed dictionary should confirm), but this was the first time it had been an actual bug rather than just a metaphor -- and Ms. Hopper, being a computer geek, found this funny enough to actually tape the bug into the official logbook.
It wouldn't have been nearly that funny if it were just a bug in the relay, without being the physically-realized pun. It would have just been, eww, smushed bug. And she couldn't have known that "the first bug" would be worth recording.
Nicely written article. However, in your introduction, when you "paraphrase" Asimov's "The Last Question", you should have cited Fredric Brown's one-page story, "Answer" (Is there a God?/Yes, now there is a god), which had been written five years before Asimov's story.
How can one mention Asimov’s Multivac in reference to the ultimate in fictional Supercomputer and not in the train of thought bring up Douglas’ Deep Thought…. I mean seriously Deep Thought was the size of a planet, had its own gravity, and only took 10 million years to determine that the answer to Life the Universe and everything was 42. Multivac on the other had does get props for consuming all the energy in the universe on the whim of two drunken sysops.
Those from "Sabena" are Belgian, the air way company Sabena went bankrupt a few years ago and went through some name changing. I think they're now called "Brussels Airlines".
I was wrhite on mi blog an history about an old suitcase full of hotel labels. I found it beside a garbage container at Valencia (Spain). It´s really lovely. I less you the link of suitcase fotography. I hope did you like it. http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4937/3620/1600/maleta2.3.jpg
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4 Comments:
It´s really fantastic. Very, very nice.
Lovely stuff. I must try it myself.
I think you'll find the "riveted, highly evocative face" is actually spot welded.
Smerky
Behold the Beaviance!
Recently posted on Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns Fan Art Forum:
http://www.wetanz-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1370
March march march Zzzap!
Great Series!
But no serious round of contemporary retro robots would be complete without the work of Clayton Bailey. He's been making these for 35 years!
http://www.claytonbailey.com/index.htm
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