Month: July 1996

Cartwheels Gizmo Box

Susan Alexander‘s Cartwheels Gizmo Box is a collection of characters mounted on rotating shafts. As they turn, they appear like circus acrobatic clowns performing for an audience.

Detail of Cartwheels Gizmo Box by Susan Alexander
Detail of Cartwheels Gizmo Box by Susan Alexander

Susan has also designed another performance piece called Nervous People which are characters on radio-controlled platforms that move around stage briefly and then “spaz out.”

The Cartwheels Gizmo Box and Nervous People were exhibited at RoboFest 7.

These pieces are part of a series of theatrical robots and performance art being designed for stage performance. Brooks Coleman is directing the robot theatre movement.

RoboFest 7 Press Release

URGENT – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 4th, 1996

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :
The Robot Group
P.O. Box 164334
Austin, Texas 78716
512-288-9135
http://www.robotgroup.org
robo@robotgroup.org

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you an important announcement. Local city officials were notified today of an impending invasion. The group claiming responsibility for the warning is none other than The Robot Group. The group made up of artists and engineers has quietly gone about creating robotic art forms for over seven years without incident. The Robot Group a local hi-tech arts organization well known for its annual technology festival RoboFest and as yet has no confirmed connections to terrorist groups. There are few details about the invasion other than a specific time frame.

The invasion is scheduled to begin on September 14th and will target the University of Texas area. There are unsubstantiated rumors that the invading force will use robots to conquer the Dobie Mall tower. The Robot Group would not comment on this rumor fearing retribution from the “outside force”.

The Robot Group claims that they are not responsible for the immanent [sic] invasion of Austin and are simply acting as the conduit for this warning. The group claims they were contacted and infiltrated by “outside forces” earlier this month. “These outside forces are way outside of our normal sphere of influence” claim the group “but they are forces that we have no control over”. The group would not elaborate on how this “outside force” made its initial contact or how they have taken control of The Robot Group. They could only add that the warning about the upcoming invasion was all that they could safely communicate.

The threat to Austin citizens and property is minimal as long as we cooperate they say. “Our cooperation is really quite simple. The only thing the invaders require is attendance to this year’s RoboFest” the group went on to say. For some unspecified reason this controlling outside force is demanding that thousands of Austin citizens be in attendance for a special message on September 14th and 15th. What will occur if the demands of the invading force are not met remains to be seen. The Robot Group claims that the “outsiders” have the ability to watch us constantly and that they know our every move. As proof of their ability to watch us closely from the sky, the invaders have commandeered one of the group’s blimps and will use it to monitor the invasion from the airspace around the Dobie Mall Tower.

Robot Invasion of Austin

It’s coming : the time to bias your transistors and heat up your resistors and march to RoboFest 7. The Robot Group will be hosting their seventh annual technology festival on September 14th and 15th in the Dobie Mall. This year’s festival will be the entertainment event of the year for robots and robot lovers of all ages.

The Robot Group wants the City of Austin to be recognized as the “Robot Capital of the World” and this is the first step in gaining that well deserved recognition. Every year the group assembles and re-assembles the dozens of robotic creations, that have graced the pages of Newsweek, Mondo 2000 and Fringeware Review, specifically for RoboFest. This year the robots are going back to school. RoboFest 7 will be held in Dobie Mall a stone’s throw away from the University of Texas and will feature many guest speakers and exhibits from our prestigious University. In addition the group’s most recent creations will continue to amaze the Austin audience. Plans for this year’s RoboFest include an outdoor flying blimp, a hexapod walker, an army of cardboard robots, and RoboVision a new telepresence application using video feeds from the outdoor blimp.

This year’s festival also includes a tie-in film festival with a robotic theme. The Robot Group will be presenting three classic films in conjunction with RoboFest. The film festival will be showing at Dobie Theatre which is also located in Dobie Mall. The films are two 50’s era sci-fi classics “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Forbidden Planet” and the ‘82 mega cult classic “Blade Runner”. The “Blade Runner” print will be the 35 mm Director’s Cut of the film and it will close both the movie festival and RoboFest 7. Admission for the two day festival is $4.00 for adults and $2.00 for children. The films will each have an admission price of $3.50. One hour free parking is available in the Dobie Mall parking garage located on Whitis Street across from Dobie Mall.
Resistance is futile Austin will be invaded come September.
Join us or you’ll regret it.

Editor’s note : The text of the original press release has been preserved without editing for spelling or grammar. Some links have been deleted whereas the others have been updated.