Introduction by Steev Morgan
For many years the clichés of Hollywood and science fiction have formed the popular conception of 
robots. HAL of Kubrick and Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey typifies the persona: autonomous and intelligent, sometimes malicious and often possessed of their own agenda. These modern embodiments of the Frankenstein myth usually prove to be the nemesis of their creators.
On the other hand the industrial reality of robots offers a rather more prosaic image. These robots are entirely predictable and dependable.
They are capable of performing dangerous or repetitive tasks quickly and tirelessly without end. The only threat they pose is to the jobs of assembly-line workers and the only thrill is for those who monitor the bottom lines of corporate ledgers.
The most interesting applications by artists in this field use robots more as a means than an end. The artist, being unconcerned with mere functionality or plot-line, is free to create complex systems and set them in motion to observe the emergent order that manifests itself.
Norman White has demonstrated that artists can create devices imbued with sets of functions which might be seen as abilities or freedoms rather than restrictions. If these functions are tuned carefully and allowed to run free, then the robot can develop what may be described as behavior. Unlike the actions of a simple mechanical devise, these behaviors are often unpredictable. These in turn can often be seen to tell us a lot about ourselves, and our relationships with each other and our machines.
In this exhibition White brings together a number of works which attempt to shatter some of the clichés generally held about automata and expand the commonly held preconceptions about artists and their relationship to their works.
At their simplest these works demonstrate the order to be found within chaos. The more complex pieces display, through a juxtaposition of function and limitation that parallels will and vulnerability, the emergence of rudimentary personalities.
Artists included in the show included:
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Facing Out Laying Low Norman White |
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autARKy Steev Morgan – Catherine Orfald |
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Sticks Doug Back |
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Fingerprints from Birth of Essence Erlich, Robert T. |
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The Wanderer David Rokeby |
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