Stelarc (Australia) / Biography
EXOSKELETON

Exoskeleton is a six-legged, pneumatically powered walking machine that has been constructed for the body. The body actuates the walking machine by moving its arms. Different gestures make different motions; a translation of arm to leg motions and of human bipedal locomotion to insect-like machine locomotion exists. The body’s arms guide the choreography of the locomotor’s movements, thus composing the cacophony of pneumatic, mechanical and sensor modulated, midi generated sounds. The artist composes the sounds by choreographing the movements of the walking machine and the mechanical manipulator. He not only has to see the direction that he is heading but must also listen to the sounds that the machine is making. Therefore, the robot is not only a walking machine, but also a sound machine.

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION: Exoskeleton / Walked Head (06:47), GB/DE/AU, color, stereo, DVD, 2007
PHOTO CREDITS: Stelarc, Exoskeleton, Cyborg Frictions, Dampfzentrale, Bern, Switzerland. © 1999 Photo by Dominik Landwehr. Stelarc, Exoskeleton, Cankarjev Dom, Warehouse, Vhrnika, Slovenia. © 2003 Photo by Igor Skafar

Stelarc (Australia)
WALKING HEAD

Walking Head is a two metre in diameter pneumatically actuated 6-legged autonomous walking robot. Similar to Exoskeleton, it can walk forward, backward, left and right, and turn on the spot. Vertically mounted on its chassis is an LCD screen imaging a computer generated human-like head. The robot has a scanning ultra-sound sensor that detects the presence of a person in front of it. It sits still until someone comes into the gallery space; it then stands, selects from its library of possible movements and performs the choreography for several minutes.

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION: Exoskeleton / Walked Head (06:47), GB/AU, color, stereo, DVD, 2007
PHOTO CREDITS: Stelarc, Walked Head, 2007, photo courtesy the artist. © 2007 Stelarc