Christian Ristow | |
|---|---|
 Ristow's "Becoming Human" sculpture, on display at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico. | |
| Born | July 2, 1970 |
Christian Ristow (born July 2, 1970) is an American robotic artist. He is known for his robotic performance art under the name Robochrist Industries, his animatronics work in film and television, and his large-scale interactive sculptures.
From 1993 to 1997, Ristow volunteered for the seminal robotic performance art collective Survival Research Laboratories in San Francisco, California. [1] During these years Ristow was involved in several SRL performances, contributing not only props but also, particularly in the years 1996 and 1997, robots that he had constructed. [2] During this period Ristow also participated in several collaborative performances with another San Francisco based performance group, The Seemen, including the often cited Hellco performance at the 1996 Burning Man festival. [3]
In 1997 Ristow relocated to Los Angeles to work in the field of animatronics for film and television. [4] Los Angeles also provided fresh audiences uninitiated to the world of robot performance art, which was already becoming well known in northern California. [5] Shortly thereafter the name "Robochrist Industries" was first used and a small group of volunteers coalesced to form a working performance group. The gradual inclusion of artistic and technical professionals from disciplines such as film special effects and the aerospace industry helped fuel larger and more frequent shows over the ensuing years.
Starting in 1999 Ristow and cohorts began performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. These shows represented the apex of the group's activities, both in terms of fully realized spectacle and audience exposure. The 2006 film "Coachella" features footage culled from Robochrist performances from several different years as well as a brief interview with Ristow. [6]
In early 2006 Ristow again relocated, this time leaving Los Angeles for Taos, New Mexico, effectively killing Robochrist Industries.[ citation needed ]
The relocation to New Mexico marked a significant turn in Ristow's artistic output, away from robot-based ensemble performances, and in the direction of large-scale interactive sculpture. The list of notable large-scale sculptures built since that time includes Hand of Man (2008), Fledgling (2011), Face Forward (2011), Becoming Human (2014), and With Open Arms We Welcomed That Which Would Destroy Us (2018). These pieces have been shown at Burning Man, [7] the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, [8] Big Day Out (Australia),[ citation needed ] The Voodoo Experience [9] (New Orleans, Louisiana), Maker Faire, [10] and The Glastonbury Festival [11] (England).
Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night of Burning Man, which is the Saturday evening before Labor Day. The event has been located since 1991 at Black Rock City in northwestern Nevada, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Reno. As outlined by Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey in 2004, the event is guided by ten principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions.
Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an American performance art group that pioneered the genre of large-scale machine performance. Founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline, the group is known in particular for their performances where custom-built machines, often robotic, compete to destroy each other. The performances, described by one critic as "noisy, violent and destructive", are noted for the visual and aural cacophony created by the often dangerous interactions of the machinery.
Coachella is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music.
Robotic art is any artwork that employs some form of robotic or automated technology. There are many branches of robotic art, one of which is robotic installation art, a type of installation art that is programmed to respond to viewer interactions, by means of computers, sensors and actuators. The future behavior of such installations can therefore be altered by input from either the artist or the participant, which differentiates these artworks from other types of kinetic art.
Flaming Lotus Girls is a volunteer-based group of artists who make large-scale kinetic fire art. FLG has been described as a "women-focused anarchist art collective." The group began in 2000, in San Francisco, California, as a group of six women and two men who wanted to gain the fabrication skills and design experience needed to create large sculptural installations. The group includes over a hundred members of all genders, and a majority of the members are women. Many of the sculptures have interactive elements, allowing the audience to control the lighting, flames, sound, or other effects. The collective's work has appeared throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Mark Pauline is an American performance artist and inventor, best known as founder and director of Survival Research Laboratories. He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience, commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, is a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lucent Dossier Experience is a Los Angeles cirque style interactive, avant-garde circus, electronic rock band, performance troupe and entertainment company performing worldwide. The company's performances combine live original music and vocals with circus arts, dance, aerial arts and fire performance.
Mike Ross is an American sculptor known for large scale public art projects.
The Flux Foundation is a non-profit group based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose main objective is to build community through the creation of large-scale public art. The group creates both public art and public artists. It was founded on April 1, 2010 and was established as a California corporation on January 6, 2011, by Rebecca Anders, Jessica Hobbs, Peter (PK) Kimelman, Catherine Magee and Colinne Hemrich.
Orb Swarm is a kinetic art work consisting of six semi-autonomous spherical robots. It was created in 2007 by a group of engineers and artists including Michael Prados, Jon Foote, Lee Sonko, and many others. Orb Swarm was inspired by previous work in robotics and kinetic art, and seeks to emulate swarm behavior in nature and human dancing. Nearly all of the hardware and software in the project is open source, and others are encouraged to build upon the project's efforts.
Coachella is a music festival organized by the Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice. It takes place annually at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The event is known for its large art pieces and cutting-edge artists' performances.
Pepe Ozan (1939–2013) was an Argentine sculptor, artistic director, and filmmaker. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, and is known for his lasting influence at Burning Man, an annual experimental arts festival in Nevada, United States.
Mark Grieve is an American contemporary artist. He practices in a variety of media including found objects and large metal sculpture as well as site-specific installations, performance, and public art.
Geek Picnic is the largest European open air festival dedicated to popular science, modern technology, science and art.
Jen Lewin is an interactive artist and engineer with a studio based in New York City who specializes in large scale installations in public spaces, usually combining elements such as light, sound and complex engineering. Her interactive light installation The Pool debuted in 2008 and has been exhibited across the globe, in cities such as Singapore, Sydney, Denver, Montréal and Prague, and in events such as South By Southwest and Burning Man.
Kal Spelletich is an American contemporary artist. A pioneer of San Francisco's machine art scene, he hand builds complex machines and robots. Current work, in 2018, includes building functional artificial robotic organs as a residence of the Stochastic Labs in Berkeley California. Through a collaboration with audience members who volunteer to control or operate his sculptures, Spelletich's work explores the interface of robots and humans. Early work frequently incorporated fire and "extremely dangerous" situations, to examine the boundaries of fear, control and exhilaration. By the late 1990s Spelletich started incorporating sensors in his sculptures to engage with questions about technology, spirituality, and play.
Aaron Taylor Kuffner is an American conceptual artist living and working in New York.