While watching a show by Survival Research Laboratories, at what point do we feel nervous? When the gigantic flame-thrower laps its angry tongue in our direction? When a tank-sized steel monster chews menacingly on a piece of scrap metal? All forms...
[more]While watching a show by Survival Research Laboratories, at what point do we feel nervous? When the gigantic flame-thrower laps its angry tongue in our direction? When a tank-sized steel monster chews menacingly on a piece of scrap metal? All forms of death and destruction are accounted for by SRL, daring mere humans not to look away.
It seems odd that the quiet Sarasota swampland was the birthplace of the mind behind such terrifying techno-visions. Mark Pauline, founder of Survival Research Laboratories, started life in Florida but moved to California; along the way he worked as a contractor for the military. After studying visual arts at Eckerd College, Pauline conceived of the Survival Research Laboratory as a way to employ his construction skills in the service of artistic anarchy. He credits his dear mother, who exposed him to subversive literature as a child, with instilling in him such cynical inspiration.
His first mechanized grotesquerie, a 1979 show called 'Machine Sex,' took place in San Francisco. Decades later, the creator of controlled chaos continues to plow ahead into joyous technological destruction. Aided by a small, volunteer army, Survival Research Laboratories fuses mechanical ingenuity with targeted artistic wit to create a spectacle within a spectacle. V-1 rockets, unbelievably powerful mechanical arms, and high-speed projectile throwers flicker in a surreal landscape. All are fear-inducing visions of a technology-dominated future, a parody of the current military-industrial complex.
Built from the remnants of past warfare and industrial production, these robots are enough to make our worst nightmares seem colorless and trivial. Warnings are standard prior to any SRL event: 'This performance involves loud sound, low frequency, and blinking strong light. If you feel bad, please request assistance from a person in charge."
Ever the elegant elocutionist, Mark Pauline gives his shows a disturbing edge with uncomfortably exacting titles. The nomenclature for past performances is enough to give even the best speech therapist a good twist of the tongue. Some titles include 'The Deliberate Destruction of Elaborately Engineered Artifacts' and 'A Calculated Forecast of Ultimate Doom -- Sickening Episodes of Widespread Devastation Accompanied by Sensations of Pleasurable Excitement.'
If there's one thing that irks this calculating and curious character, it's repetitious art in a practical and predictable world. Every SRL show drives at distributing mass manipulation and disturbing internal equilibrium. Machines struggle against machines, calling into question our own comfortable relationships with technology. In its artistic endeavors, SRL exhibits the traits of a terrorist entity while exposing humanity's vulnerable existence.
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