Reclining StickMan is a 9m long, 4m high stick-figure robot, actuated by antagonistically bundled pneumatic rubber muscles. It has 9 degrees-of-freedom including limb actuation and continuous rotation. Visitors at the AGSA can insert their own choreography from a control panel. Anyone, anywhere at any time can remotely access and actuate the robot. A background algorithm intermittently animates the robot if no one intervenes. The droning motor sounds, the solenoid clicks and the muscles compressing and contracting, extending and exhausting are amplified, registering the limb motions and extending the physical presence of the robot. The artist performed for 5 hours continuously, actuating the limbs of the robot with pneumatic joysticks – responding interacting with the local gallery audience input and remote participation. The continuous rotation generated large moving anamorphically stretched shadows on the 3 walls and ceiling.
Credits
Creation and Performance: Stelarc
Design Engineering: Wayne Mitchell
Pneumatic muscles and technology: Mark Harrison
Robot fabrication: AITI at Flinders University
Interactive software and electronics: Steve Berrick
Photography: Saul Steed
Robots used
A large mechanical scaffolding in the shape of a human stick-figure, held together by pneumatic tubes, in which a single person can recline.
