# Alexander McQueen's vision

Alexander McQueen is a fashion designer proposing a very interesting and original vision of the human body and fashion. In his last show in Paris (see all the images below and the video on official website) he presented what I interpret as stakes which would potentially remodel the human body in a kind of intriguing mutant ready to join David Lynch's Dune world.
McQueen is also using robots as a representation of otherness. Voyeur cameras peeping at girls in his last show, he also conceive what I would call ejaculatory robots in 1999 which were soiling the model's white dress with sperm/paint. You can watch that on this last video after 40s of visioning.

# Pike loop; Gramazio & Kohler's robot in the Storefront

Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler will be presenting their robot that we don't introduce anymore (for uninformed people or Harvard students, you can see R-O-B work on this former post) at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC between September 30th and November 15th. The installation will not be set at the storefront itself, but rather in the public space on Pike Street between Division Street and East Broadway. We will then see if after several year, this robot learned from its experience or keep on doing the same thing over and over again...

# Kevin Warwick is a cyborg

Kevin Warwick is a British scientist and expert in cybernetics. He teaches at the University of Reading (England) and is known for his self experiments on interfaces between computers and human brain. (I personally read about him in Zizek's Organs without bodies).
Here is a wikipedia article quoting of his experiments:

The first stage of this research, which began on 1998-08-24, involved a simple RFID transmitter being implanted beneath Warwick's skin, and used to control doors, lights, heaters, and other computer-controlled devices based on his proximity. The main purpose of this experiment was said to be to test the limits of what the body would accept, and how easy it would be to receive a meaningful signal from the chip.

The second stage involved a more complex neural interface which was designed and built especially for the experiment by Dr. Mark Gasson and his team at the University of Reading. This device was implanted on 2002-03-14, and interfaced directly into Warwick's nervous system. The electrode array inserted contained 100 electrodes, of which 25 could be accessed at any one time, whereas the median nerve which it monitored carries many times that number of signals. The experiment proved successful, and the signal produced was detailed enough that a robot arm developed by Warwick's colleague, Dr Peter Kyberd, was able to mimic the actions of Warwick's own arm^[26].

By means of the implant, Warwick's nervous system was connected onto the internet in Columbia University, New York. From there he was able to control the robot arm in the University of Reading and to obtain feedback from sensors in the finger tips. He also successfully connected ultrasonic sensors on a baseball cap and experienced a form of extra sensory input.

# La Machine's spider in Yokohama

Remember this crazy mechanical elephant which used to walk in some European cities during several festivals. La Machine (French artists collective) did it again and sent a giant spider to Louise Bourgeois' Mum (or Wild Wild West movie...) to Japan to celebrate Yokohama's port 150th anniversary.

pictures (Chirodian)

# SMALL /// RepRap project

The REPRAP project started two years ago, the project is based on the idea to create a machine that can reproduce itself.

The Reprap machine is in fact an open sourced D.I.Y. 3D printer that can produce solid plastic connection that are necessary to build the machine.

Anyway this machine is an affordable possibility to create your own rapid prototyping machine, it's dedicated for all the lazy students that doesn't want to build there models (but whom are ready to build this machine!!).

The official site: here

The official blog: here

Thank s Matt for the links !

# 1stAveMachine

I really thought I wrote this post for ages, but apparently I did not...

1stAveMachine defines itself as a production outfit and visual design collective. Those guys are creating some gorgeous videos for commercial and...for fun. Their leitmotiv concerns ambiguity between nowadays' nature and artifice, what I personnaly called Androïde Nature and that a famous blog call Next Nature.
Here are three of them (more on official website).

1st Ave Machine propaganda

Alias - Sixes Last

Chris Clark - Ted

# Robot Hands Get a Grip on the Future

Wired currently proposes an article about robotic hand's evolution from the 60's to nowadays.

# R-O-B by Gramazio & Kohler in Venice's biennal

Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler are going more and more into details in their reseach about robotic aided construction. After Gantenbein Winery (see the movie) and their Seroussi Pavilion's Competition entry, they invaded Switzerland's Venice's Biennal Pavilion with their bricks walls assembled by R-O-B (he's a robot by the way !).
I would say qualities and faults are quite the same than for other projects; notably, bricks are ugly and the space created could have been much more interesting... In addition it would have been great to see the machine assembling the walls LIVE !
Anyway, interesting people are too rare to be devaluated so let's thank and congratulate Switzerland for its choice !

# Jeremy Mayer's Typewriter sculptures

Jeremy Mayer is an artist who sculpt robots with...typewriters !
found on wired

# Cool posters for a cool movie / Pixar's Wall-E

Don't miss the Ending Credits !!!

# Asimo chef d'orchestre !

Le 23 avril dernier, Asimo, le fameux produit de la recherche robotique de Honda, a dirigé, une partie de la soirée, le Detroit Symphonic Orchestra. L'image est impressionnante et dérange dans l'ambivalence qu'elle provoque entre franc enthousiasme et frayeur anticipatrice.

trouvé sur nextnature

# Kenji Yanobe

Kenji Yanobe est un artiste japonais qui, depuis 1969, travaille sur la contamination nucléaire et sur des dispositifs de survie. Onze ans après la catastrophe de Tchernobyl (1986), il explore la ville déserte et pose dans ce paysage post apocalyptique.
Merci à Nico Polaert pour son bouquin !

New Deme
Ce projet faisait partie de l'exposition "The Ruin of the Future" en 2002. Ce robot Sumo porte dans son dos du minerai d'uranium et de la mousse qui pousse naturellement dans la cabine de l'Expo Tower d'Osaka 70, une centaine de mètres au dessus du sol.

Mickey and Minnie Masks

Sweet harmonizer 2
Ceci est un producteur de gaz euphorisant.

Atom Suit Projet/ Ferris Wheel
Tchernobyl

Contaminated Atom Suit
La combinaison contaminée est scellée dans une cabine stérile

# Les méca-insectes de Christopher Conte

trouvé sur Building Blog
--> site officiel de Christopher Conte

# Nous étions des cyborgs

Je me suis ouvert le doigt à cause d'une p... de portière sur mon vélo ce soir, du coup j'ai des idées bizarres...

# Conférence de François Roche (encore !)

Avec pour titre, le même que la dernière fois (qui avait changé entre temps), Automate Bachelors in Dystopia Zones, François Roche est à nouveau au programme des conférences à Paris. Cette fois-ci, c'est à la Maison Rouge vendredi prochain (14) à 18h.
Il faut néanmoins envoyer un mail à incident@incident.net en précisant nom et prénom, pour pouvoir s'inscrire.
La conférence, sous fond de confrontation entre les célibataires de Duchamp avec des scenarii mettant en scène le "mouvement en train de se faire", se déroulera en la présence de Jérome Auzolle (Archicool), Sébastien Pluot et Alexandra Midal.

La Maison Rouge
10 boulevard de la Bastille dans le XIIe

# Conférence de François Roche à l'école de la Villette

Demain soir (13oct à18h) à l'école d'architecture de la Villette aura lieue une conférence de François Roche dans le cadre "Architecture et inconscient technologique" ayant pour thème "Automate Bachelors in Dystopia Zone". Ca promet d'être passionnant alors n'hésitez pas à venir !!!
Ecole de la Villette
amphi 11
144 avenue de flandres dans le XIXe
nb: la conférence ne dure qu'une demi heure car appartenant au principe de ces trois jours remplis de conférences (en gros ne pas hésitez à venir avant !)