The Republic
Columbus, Indiana
Thursday, April, 21, 2005

Robotic works invade Commons

By John Clark

The creation spreading across the wooden floor pulses, throbs, grows, shudders and shrinks looking like a cross between a giant animated tree root and a mass of arteries spilling from a thick, alien heart.

The new exhibit at Columbus Museum of Art and Design in The Commons Telescoping Totem Poles by Amorphic Robot Works from New York City combines elements of the organic and the mechanical, art and engineering, the modern world and the ancient.

A preview and reception is tonight. The exhibit has a public opening Friday and runs through July 31.

Wednesday afternoon Chico MacMurtrie and his crew were still assembling the project.

"It was a pretty ambitious project for us to pull off in the amount of time and the amount of budget," he said. "But we got really excited about doing it. So, we just sort of pushed it forward. It is always a little bit down to the wire."

The exhibit combines rip-stop nylon, robotics, computer technology, molded plastics and light and sound sensors to create a different presentation for each viewer, said Chico MacMurtrie, artistic director of Amorphic Robot Works.

"It is an interactive installation which involves three cameras monitoring the space," MacMurtrie said. "You, as the viewer, as an individual, would sort of create your own experience with it. You would control the rate at which the whole thing evolves and unfolds in front of you."

"You are the root of the experience, the viewer."

In essence, the motions of the robotic pieces of the exhibit, sheathed in living-looking fabric and plastic, are controlled by sophisticated computer programs. The input for those programs comes from the exhibits' viewers by their body movements, which are captured by the cameras.

One piece just outside the main exhibit area, named Yo Yo, looks like a robotic man who plays a guitar-like instrument and a drum in reaction to the viewers' inputs.

"You can come up to it and clap or stomp or click or yell. Those are just inputs to the computer. It stores the information and responds with that rhythm," MacMurtrie said.

Inside the hall, the giant root and arteries are blown up with air from hidden air compressors. The totem poles, covered in flesh-like sheaths, move and grow.

"We have something so tall that it really wants to go through the ceiling," MacMurtrie said. "We are trying to figure out if we can get it to go through the ceiling or not" If we can do that, I think it would be super cool."

Although Amorphic Robot Works has ongoing displays in cities like Indianapolis and Cincinnati, MacMurtrie said he really enjoys small towns. He was especially impressed with Jean Tinguly's giant Chaos I sculpture in The Commons.

"It is definitely a smaller town than what we are used to, but to me that is really interesting," MacMurtrie said. "First of all, if there is a Jean Tinguely here, then the town is OK for me from the get-go."

"I think a small town deserves something really exciting the same way a larger town does. In a way, it can have a little bit more impact.

"We travel a lot in Europe, and the places I have enjoyed the most are the smaller places. As an artist, I like everybody to have an opportunity to talk to me " like if somebody has a question or tells me what they see. That has happened to me more in smaller places than larger places."