Chico MacMurtrie / Amorphic Robot Works

 

Floorplan Stringbody lift Air hoses Valve bank

An early conceptual sketch of The Amorphic Landscape incorporating most of the elements that are a part of the work today.
Artwork: Chico MacMurtrie

Model-building accompanies the construction of almost all ARW pieces.
Model: Chico MacMurtrie

A very early stage in the setup of The Amorphic Landscape, with only the path through the Landscape installed.
Photo: Stijn Slabbinck

The Amorphic Landscape: Fabrication

A complete scale-model of The Landscape was created. this model enabled the ARW crew to resolve the oversized robot in reasonable detail and contemplate emergent logistics before the three-month construction phase began. the initially conceived size was scaled back to a 20 x 6 meter work that reached five meters in height to allow for its construction and presentation in the largest venue available to the NOW2000 Festival.

The basic infrastructure for The Landscape set uses nine hydraulic lifts connected by a telescoping metal structure. this structure supports a series of platforms, which house the hydraulics, pneumatics, electronics and lighting and power supplies that power the performances. The structure also houses the robotic inhabitants, and supports the sculptural components that give The Landscape its characteristic look.

The basic model for the Landscape skin was influenced by MacMurtrie’s experience in a mountinous southwestern mining town, Bisbee, Arizona. Using techniques devised in previous work, and engaging a team of seamstresses, MacMurtrie sought to build forms by roughing them out, inflating them and sewing further details from the inside.

The final work became a living landscape, evolving in performance from dormant set to living, organic sculpture using its own body as a percussive birthing instrument for the characters it reveals, and to which it eventually succumbs. The Landscape provided the temporal and spatial framework needed to provide a narrative coherence and visual dynamic incomplete in the band of performing individuals alone.

The Landscape premiered at the NOWfestival, performing five times to audiences of 500 or more. The Landscape has since toured Germany, Austria and France, including a three-month exhibition at the 2004 Cultural Capital Festival in Lille, France, which was visited by more than 90,000 international visitors. During the residency that accompanied the Cultural Capital exhibition, ARW enhanced The Landscape to function as an interactive exhibition based on computer vision technologies, allowing the work to remain open and function throughout the day in addition to the standard performances that were scheduled throughout the run of the show.