When Art and
Servos Mix
by Allison F. Walton and Filomena Serpa
When we were at FLOAT — the
Floatation Center and Art Gallery
— we started thinking about what we
should pick for our December art show,
robots as art came to us in an instant.
Why not fill our gallery with DIY Bay
Area robotic art? Hell, everyone loves
robots, don’t they? And isn’t it the next
brick and mortar Internet, the job of the
future? Who knew how much work we
were going to be taking on ... I guess
we should be careful what we ask for!
Four furiously busy months later
the “Robots are Art” art show and
contest came to be. We had 17
robotic artists, including: a robot that
served beer from his belly; a robot
made of toilet paper rolls; a beggar
robot the drove up and down the
sidewalk barking out “give me 50
cents;” a breathalyzer robot, and lots
of fantastic robotic influenced wall art.
Infiltrating the robotic community
is a bit of an endeavor, but we were
lucky enough to be led to these artisans though a number of connections.
Max Chandler who programs robots to
paint petroglyph’s was one of the first
robotic artists to respond to my call for
entries, providing valuable insight into
the community. John Willams, owner
of Boss Robots — a local Berkley
robotic toy store, helped spread the
word and Frank Garvey, founder of
Omni Circus — a robotic cabaret in San
Francisco — was also invaluable. Garvey
eventually led me to David Calkins,
78 SERVO 03.2008
founder of the Robotic Society of
America, who was kind enough to be
one of our robotic art judges, and
helped to spread the word nationally.
Supporting this madness and creating a tipping point with press was Monty
— the gorgeous Anybots robot — in his
first open-to-the-public appearance. As
luck would have it, while cold calling Bay
Area robotics companies for sponsorship,
I had the sheer luck to have Scott Wiley
(one of the Anybots engineers) answer
the phone. Wiley just happened to be an
artist. I was soon invited to come meet
Monty and Dexter at the Anybots incubation facility in Mountain View, CA.
What an amazing group of guys
building peaceful robots of the future!
The team is lead by Trevor Blackwell,
the CEO and founder. He is one of
those brilliant guys that loves to create
the next best thing. Not only did
Anybots decide to sponsor us, they
were bringing Monty to judge the
robotic art. (We did a happy dance on
the drive back to the gallery!)
We had wonderful industry and
non-industry sponsors. The Ugobe
Pleos came to play with the kids at the
show; our Robonova1 was a major hit,
especially since Hitec sent me a Ti Chi
program to entertain the masses. We
had a crowd of hundreds come, with a
line out the door. Our “spin the robot”
raffle allowed party goers to win hats
and tees from Pandora.com, SERVO
Magazine subscriptions, incredible
wine donated by Mel Knox, wine
broker, and floatation therapy sessions.
The grand prize was an art robot
toy plus a visit to Anybots to meet
Dexter and Monty. Monty autographed
8x10 pictures of himself and handed
them out to the crowd. The local FOX
television station had us on the 10
o’clock news. (See robots are fun!)
In addition to wine, beer, and
snacks, the party-goers were able to
pick up free cups, and SERVO
magazines. (Best $5 deal in town!) The
money went to cash prizes for the
winners, who won categories such as
“now that’s a sexy robot;” “robots as a
reflection of society;” and “
incorporation of found objects,” to name a few.
During the month long show, we had
800-900 people visit the gallery.
People who never thought they
liked robots are now converts. The
show was a wonderful success, clearly
the art of robotics is a strong draw in
the Bay Area, and we hope that more
venues will take the time to appreciate
robotic artists as much as we do.
Even weeks after the event closed,
we still get people calling about
wanting to see the show. We’re
actually still recovering from the first
event! So, be careful what you ask for!
Now we’re off to build our own xenon
plasma headed robot, and will decide if
“Robots are Art 2” is in our future.
Look for our upcoming youtube video
of the show soon! SV
