What happens when you put 15 robots in a blender? A new exhibit called Voltron's Corpse shows the Frankenstein-style outcome you get when you mix and match wildly different sci-fi art by more than a dozen creators.
Riffing on a surrealist technique known as exquisite corpse that creates art through a collaborative process, the exhibition's curators gave participating artists a blueprint for their robotic creations: three parts, with panels measuring 20 inches wide by 16 inches high. The curators then scramble the art and "reassemble" the various segments into 4-foot-high robots composed of colorful components.
"Instead of surreal artists blindly expanding each others' drawings, we directed our artists to maintain a precise formula: Develop a robot that mimics the bodily format of Fashion Plates (drawing toys popularized in the 1970s) – head, torso and legs," said co-curator Andrew Wodzianski in an e-mail to Wired. "Each artist's robot was rendered on three uniformly marked supports. The resulting triptych can then be separated and matched against portions of other artists' robots."
From Robby the Robot to C-3PO, a never-ending parade of vaguely humanoid machines has seized sci-fi fans' imaginations over the years. The variety of designs in Voltron's Corpse – even before they get mixed-and-matched by the curators – run the gamut from freaky to friendly to frightful. To further emphasize the malleability of our robotic helpers, the various artists' triptychs will be parted out: No buyer can purchase more than one piece by any given artist.
The exhibit is part of an annual event in the Washington, D.C., area called Countdown to Yuri's Night. It's one of a string of parties around the world each year that celebrate cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the 1961 space shot that made him the first human to escape Earth's bonds.
While the D.C. event has always focused on human spaceflight, Voltron's Corpse is a nod to the largely nonhuman future of space exploration. The robotic theme came to co-curator Jared Davis as he was pondering this year's Countdown to Yuri's Night party and thinking about the Curiosity rover so diligently traversing the surface of Mars.
"It was the middle of the night and I was in a rural part of upstate New York with a crappy internet connection," Davis said. "That's when I realized that we had never given robots their due at Yuri's Night.... The fact of the matter is, the United States' manned spaceflight program is kaput (mostly) and robots are going to take a larger and larger role in space exploration. They have so many advantages: They don't need oxygen, don't need rest, can work at extreme temperatures, the list goes on and on. Also, unlike humans, they have interchangeable parts, which is a bit of what we are playing at here with this exhibition."
The rise of the robots in 2013's Countdown to Yuri's Night also plays into the curators' mutual love of sci-fi, according to Wodzianski, 38, an artist and art professor who lives in Washington, D.C.
"We're both products of science fiction's Silver Age, though we certainly differ with our franchise preferences," he said. "Jared adores Star Trek and Doctor Who, while I'm a Star Wars and Alien fanboy. We find common ground with Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker's [Guide to the Galaxy]."
The exhibition's unusual format presented unique challenges, the curators said, most of which resulted from what might be generously called the "artistic temperament."
"Asking artists to follow the rules is akin to herding Kzinti (that was a Star Trek cat reference for Jared)," said Wodzianski. "A few of our colleagues took some 'creative license' in regards to our precise measurements. From a theoretical standpoint, it's maddening. However, the resulting exhibit is stronger with a handful of idiosyncrasies."
While the exhibit and the Countdown to Yuri's Night 2013 dance party, which will feature live bands and a burlesque show, both look like fun, Davis said the underlying message is actually somewhat serious.
"I think that it is imperative that we as a species get up there and muck around so that we can have a lifeboat," said Davis, 37, an artist/scenic designer from D.C. who works as scenic studio manager for Arlington County Cultural Affairs in Virginia. "However, the public gets turned off by space (and science) when it becomes mundane and unimaginative. So, I want to help rekindle that 'awe' that NASA used to have."
The ultimate mission for this space-themed event?
"If someone comes to our Yuri's Night and sees that space exploration can be sexy, or funny, or weird, or awesome, we have accomplished our goal," Davis said. "Because that person will then begin to think twice about defunding space exploration.... In the same way that the original series Star Trek inspired countless people to be passionate about science and space, we want to help recreate that atmosphere, if only for one night."
Voltron's Corpse opens Wednesday and runs through May 4 at Artisphere's WIP Gallery in Arlington, Virginia. The Countdown to Yuri's Night 2013: The Year of the Robot party takes place April 13, also at Artisphere.
For an awesome visualization of how the various artists' pieces will look when mixed and matched, see a web-based "machine" that shuffles the pieces, created by the curators' friend Jason Pasch. And for a further taste of tone of the event, read the totally geeky curators' statement below.
LOG ENTRY: 101010101100011
DATE: 76 A.S.A.
TOPIC: HOMO SAPIEN HISTORY
SUBJECT: HOMO SAPIEN PRODUCED VISUAL IMAGERY
DETAIL: VOLTRON'S CORPSE
SUMMARY:2013 A.D. 38.8951°N 77.069955°W Implementing a 1918 A.D. assembly technique, fifteen Homo sapiens exhibit visual imagery that accurately predict their year 3013 and the Age of Self Awareness.
1918 A.D.
Homo sapien image producers, "Surrealists," enjoy a parlor game they title "Exquisite Corpse." A producer draws an object on paper, and folds the sheet to reveal only a few extended lines. From these marks, another producer develops a second drawing, folds the sheet again, and passes along the expanding work. The finished product is a collaborative image that mirrors the disjointed, juxtaposed, and rapidly changing reality of the *Homo sapien'*s early modern age.
1985 A.D.
Homo sapien moving image producers create fictitious programming titled Voltron. Voltron is the eponymous super robot of an anime series that features a team of Homo sapiens, known as the Voltron Force. The team's individual vehicles join together to form the giant super robot, with which they defend the galaxy from evil. Initially produced as a joint venture between World Events Productions and Toei Animation, the original programming series airs in syndication from September 10, 1984, to November 18, 1985. The programming is titled Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
2013 A.D.
Homo sapien image producers and curators assemble unstable visionaries to depict the year 3013. Implementing both "Exquisite Corpse" and "Voltron" devices, the resulting exhibit is the earliest recorded document predicting the interchangeability of the Age of Self Awareness.
