This week, Chico MacMurtrie's "Amorphic Robot Works" came to Berlin,
packing standing-room audiences eight nights in a row at the
Volksbuhne's Prater Theater. The program, titled "The Ancestral Path –
the Dog Monkey's Journey through the Amorphic Evolution" presents 10
years of the San Francisco-based artist's work: a collection of
beautifully crafted sculptures/machines which perform a stunning mix of
theater, dance, and music. At times humorous, at other times utterly
frightening, the program transfixed audiences for the hour-long
spectacle and left everyone wanting more.
The performance begins with a screech. A spot light reveals the source:
a small machine whose sole purpose in life, it seems, is to create this
noise. Soon other machines begin to come alive. Pistons fire. Metal
clangs. Someone in the audience screams as a raw metal Dog Monkey
(appropriately named because it, well, resembles a cross between a dog
and a monkey) claws its way toward her in the dark. Soon the room is
alive with machines struggling to live, struggling to move, struggling
to stand… One climbs down a rope from the ceiling. Another, trapped
inside a huge inflated bag, shakes and wiggles in…is that pain?
Most are raw metal skeletons, dotted with worn pistons, and trails of
wires leading to the creative team and their sequencers (controlling
much of the show through Studio Vision and Max). Though many are
anthropomorphic – with legs, arms, and heads – and some do recall
memories (or nightmares) of James Cameron's "Terminator," most are
benign, even cute. As the title of the work suggests, these machines are
part of a larger evolution. Together, they form a technological
Galapagos: evolution – from motor to monkey and beyond – exposed. The
most simple are constructed from only a motor or piston and do little
more than make noise and wiggle. Perhaps the most complex, the
"Subhuman," who acts as a sort of ring-leader for the others, can both
play hand-drums and humorously paint/scribble on a canvas in front of
him.
By mid-performance, the hall is filled with music: a cross between
West-African drumming and industrial Klang. Many of the machines beat
hand-drums or metal pipes with their hands, others play their own
bodies, and others still create sound as they move, or struggle to move.
They play together in a highly sequenced, though surprisingly organic,
jam.
When the performance is over, the room is filled with light, and the
audience, sitting in a circle around the stage, can study the creations
or simply sit in awe. Each machine is truly beautiful: they are really
not studies in functionalism at all, with sculptural accents and
embellishments dominating the designs. This is surprising for beings
which are also technological marvels. After all, most people probably
showed up because of the technology, lured by the word "robot" more than
anything else. But in the end, the machines' earthly qualities –
organic form, movement, music – are most exceptional. The fact that
these machines posses such vivid, living sensibilities is amazing and
frightening. They are now awake, and where their evolution will take
them is anyone's guess.
+ + +
Though MacMurtrie and his team (fluctuating between 7 and 20
collaborators) is based in San Francisco, and has received 5 NEA grants,
Americans can not hope to see his creations anytime soon – due to a
"lack of support" from American arts organizations and government.
Instead, the troupe is making a year-long tour abroad:
*Upcoming Dates* (more to be announced)
Graz: Nov 22 - Dec 10
Holland ("several cities"): Dec 12, 15, 18
Hamburg: February 1998
San Poalo: October 1998 – all *100* robots from the workshop are
planned to be shown for the first time.
For more information: search on-line under keyword "Amorphic Robot
Works" or email: amorphic@earthlink.net
