This May we’re kicking off Machine Project’s newest long-term lecture series: Explorations in Teledildonics with a weekend of robotic lizard mating-rituals hosted by artist Ian Ingram.
Ian is interested in the manmade object’s future as a willful entity and the nature of communication. He builds mechatronic and robotic systems that borrow facets from animal morphology and behavior, from the shapes and movements of machines, and from our stories about animals. These systems are often intended to cohabitate and interact with animals in the wild.
For the past few years, Ian has been making a series of robots that watch for Western Fence Lizards doing pushups to declare their territories and then respond with similar gestures to attempt to claim the territory for themselves instead, possibly eliciting the affection of female lizards impressed by the pushupping prowess of these electromechanical additions to their usual mate-picking line-up. The robots are akin to the lizards solely in their signal gesture in a way that is loosely like your similarity to a winking emoticon on a screen made up of a million glowing dots.
Join us in the Machine storefront Saturday, May 9th at 8pm to hear Ian discuss his work in the field of mechanized lizard mating. Sunday, May 10th at 1pm, meet us at a Fallen Tree in Elyria Canyon Park (directions below), for a demonstration of Ian’s territory-marking robot Lizardless Legs. Folks will be welcome to come observe the robot and the lizards as they go about their business of deciding whether squamate or machine has greater claim to the Tree’s many nooks and crannies. Bring the kids!
DIRECTIONS TO FALLEN TREE IN ELYRIA CANYON PARK:
The fallen tree can be found at the coordinates (34.101115, -118.223263). From Machine Project take the 2N, exiting onto N San Fernando Rd. Make a left at Division St, a Right at Winmar Dr, and a left onto Scarboro St. The first left off Scarboro is Bridgeport Dr. The trail begins at the end of Bridgeport Dr.
Please Note: Parking is minimal on Bridgeport Dr. and there is no parking lot available. We recommend finding parking on side streets below and walking up Bridgeport Dr. into the park. Just follow the trail towards the left and soon enough you’ll find yourself at the fallen tree.