Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an American performance art group that pioneered the genre of large-scale machine performance.[1][2][3] Founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline in San Francisco, the group is known in particular for their performances where custom-built machines, often robotic, compete to destroy each other.[4][5]
The performances, described by one critic as "noisy, violent and destructive",[6] are noted for the visual and aural cacophony created by the often dangerous interactions of the machinery.[7][8] SRL's work is also related to process art and generative art. [9]
History
SRL was founded in San Francisco in 1978 by Mark Pauline.[4][10][11] Critics have drawn parallels between the group's founding and the punk and industrial music scenes of San Francisco at the time.[12][13][14] The group's name is a parody of corporate culture.[15] Pauline has said that "the vision for SRL was always about creepy, scary, violent and extreme performances that really captured the feeling of machines as living things".[16]
SRL's early collaborators included the machine artists including Matt Heckert and Eric Werner.[15][17] Heckert's main work in the group centered on the acoustic and musical parts of performance.[18] He left the group in 1988 to follow his musical interests.[18]
As of late 2023, SRL has conducted over 120 shows throughout the world, mostly in the Western United States.[21][22] SRL shows are essentially performance art installations acted out by machines rather than people. The interactions between the machines have been characterized as "noisy, violent, and destructive".[6] A frequent tag-line on SRL literature is "Producing the most dangerous shows on Earth."[23] A side-effect of the group's activities is frequent interactions with governmental and legal authorities.
Their performances are also given colorfully elaborate names as a comment on bureaucratically generated research projects & papers, such as A Calculated Forecast of Ultimate Doom: Sickening Episodes of Widespread Devastation Accompanied by Sensations of Pleasurable Excitement.[24]
The first SRL show was Machine Sex on February 25, 1979.[25][26][4] The event featured a device called The Demanufacturing Machine which "demanufactured" objects by shredding them and flinging them toward the audience.[4]
The 1982 show A Cruel and Relentless Plot to Pervert the Flesh of beasts to Unholy Uses integrated machines with objects such as mummified and dissected animals and a robot that was part metallic dog, part cadaver.[26][27][28]
The group performed The Misfortunes of Desire (Acted Out at an Imaginary Location Symbolizing Everything Worth Having) in 1988 in the parking lot of Shea Stadium.[29][30] Using 22 tons of equipment, the show included a shock wave cannon, a 4-legged walking machine, a high power flame thrower, a radio-controlled tank and a 1,200-pound catapult.[29][31] The show was sponsored by the New York City arts groups The New Museum, Creative Time, and The Kitchen.[31]
In 1989 the group presented Illusions of Shameless Abundance in San Francisco. The show, staged in the SOMA area under an on-ramp to the Bay Bridge, featured stacks of burning pianos, vats of spoiled food and flame-breathing robots.[32] The show's use of fake sculptures that resembled high explosive devices led to beach closures and the involvement of the city's bomb squad the next day.[32][33]
The group produced the 1995 show Crime Wave in San Francisco.[17]
Their 1996 show in Phoenix, Arizona, titled Survival Research Laboratories Contemplates a Million Inconsiderate Experiments, featured robots, flame throwers and a V-1 jet engine.[34][35]
In 1997 SRL staged The Unexpected Destruction of Elaborately Engineered Artifacts in Austin, Texas.[36][37]
In 2006 they performed Ghostly Scenes of Infernal Desecration in San Jose, California.[16] The performance featured an air launcher, a hovercraft and a shockwave cannon.[38][8]
Reception
SRL has received serious consideration as not only a pioneer of industrial performance art,[39] but also as a legitimate heir to the traditions of Dada and the art of Jean Tinguely, in which paradoxical creations are used to call into question the state and direction of technological society.[40]
The Demanufacturing Machine which "demanufactured" objects by shredding them and flinging them toward the audience.[4] This device was featured at SRL's first show titled Machine Sex on February 25, 1979.[44][26][4]
Assured Destructive Capability – a robot that defecated on photographs of Soviet premier at the time.[45]
Flame Hurricane – five Pulsejet engines and louvers arranged in a circle to produce a rapidly rotating column of hot wind, plus flames[46]
Hand-O'-God - a giant spring-loaded hand, cocked by an air cylinder
High Pressure Air Launcher – originally developed by NASA for use in avalanche control; fires beer cans filled with plaster using a CO2 charge. A parody of warfare technologies, with the device's operator wearing a head-mounted display.[47]
The Pitching Machine – a device which fires 2x4 pieces of lumber
Shockwave Cannon – a device which fires a shockwave of air, shattering glass remotely with the force, constructed similarly to the shockwave-based Wunderwaffen anti-bomber device or the so-called hail cannon.
Six-Legged "Running" Machine – a gas-engine powered tripedal device featuring three pairs of legs which reciprocate using a chain-driven tank-tread-like actuator, alternately extending to provide locomotion. The front pair of legs pivots, providing steering, while the rear two pairs provide forward motion.
Square Wheeled Car – industrial vehicle equipped with square wheels and no brakes or external control.
1984 Stu Walker – a spider-like[48] flame-shooting robot that was controlled by the motions of Mark Pauline's pet guinea pig "Stu"[49][50]
The V1 – a replica of the engine of a World War II V1 flying bomb pulse jet
Wheelocopter – a spinning machine which applies the principles of rotorcraft to a two-dimensional plane
Accidents and controversies
In 1982 Pauline lost two fingers from his right hand while attempting to make solid rocket fuel.[51][5]
On the basis of their 1989 San Francisco show Illusions of Shameless Abundance SRL was banned in 2011 from performing in the city by the San Francisco Fire Department.[23][52]
The sound of 1991 test in San Francisco of a homemade V-1 rocket engine resulted in police attention and a reported 300 calls to the city's earthquake hotline.[32][53]
In 2007 SRL crew member Todd Blair suffered a serious brain injury during the take-down of an SRL show at the Robodock Arts & Technology Festival in Amsterdam.[5][54]
^ abA day with Survival Research Labs News.com reporter risks life and ego at a post-industrial robot and fire art show. by Daniel Terdiman Aug. 14, 2006, cnet.
