Sarah Thee Campagna Makes Robot Sculptures (Video)

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Sarah Thee Campagna Makes Robot Sculptures (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on Tuesday July 2, 2013 @07:47AM from the some-people-do-car-rescue-and-some-do-robot-rescue dept.

Sarah's CyberCraft "about" page says, "Here at CyberCraft Robots, our Orbiting Laboratory allows us to search local star systems for Artifacts from the Future." CyberCraft's Earthside component is in St. Petersburg, Florida, where Sarah assembles robots from found parts that others might think are just ordinary industrial detritus, but that she has learned to recognize as parts from disassembled or abandoned robots. She has an alternate version of CyberCraft's history for people "with less imagination," about how she jumped from being a math whiz to studying for an EE to working as a programmer to art... and into making art robots. Or robot art, depending on how you look at it. The robots, ray guns, and spaceships Sarah makes will not fight battles or clean your house. They just sit there and look good. And they get shown in fine art galleries, so we know they're art, not just ordinary robots. This isn't to say Sarah is the only human making robot sculptures. A Google search for "robot sculpture" turns up plenty of others. We met Sarah purely by chance. We easily could have met one of the many other robot sculptors instead, but she's the one we happened to come across first. Perhaps the Quantum Computer that runs the Orbiting Robot Laboratory directed us to her. That's as good an explanation as any, isn't it?

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Is it really a robot? by i+kan+reed · 2013-07-02 07:52 · Score: 1

Is it really a robot if it doesn't fulfill a practical purpose? Robot is derived from a word meaning "slave" because it does work in place of a person. If it is unable to do work, by conjoining AI with mobility, does it really fit the bill? What makes a windmill not a robot? What makes a drill not a robot?
Android: sure, robot: I'm not convinced.
1. Re:Is it really a robot? by gl4ss · 2013-07-02 08:00 · Score: 1
  
  it's a doll.
  these are pretty retro dolls too. I kinda dig Hajime Sorayama type fantasy robots more though.. not particularly into old toys.
  the title of the video is pretty stupid though. these doll robots are art - and that's all they are! art!
  (why is the title of the slashdot produced video different than the headline for the friggin article?? INSANITÄYFAS)
  
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  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
2. Re:Is it really a robot? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 08:01 · Score: 0
  
  Not discounting her art talent, however, these are inanimate sculptures of what we might picture as robots.
3. Re:Is it really a robot? by Deluvianvortex · 2013-07-02 08:17 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Actually they're not even dolls, since they're bolted to plates. They're sculptures that look like robots. One might even go as far as saying they're not even that - since these sculptures fulfill no purpose or explain nothing insofar as they are aesthetic. Their back stories are not relevant or discernible from their form. They're just pretty, if that.
4. Re:Is it really a robot? by icebike · 2013-07-02 08:33 · Score: 2
  
  If that, indeed.
  I would like the 9 minutes of my life that I spent watching that nonsense back, and you can keep the junk you welded together.
  You see this stuff by the roadside of any country bumpkin that bought a welder. (or a Chainsaw).
  You always drive past, and never once think of posting it on Slashdot.
  Those are the rules folks.
  No, inventing a ridiculous back story doesn't earn you an exception.
  
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  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
5. Re:Is it really a robot? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 08:45 · Score: 0
  
  I would like the 9 minutes of my life that I spent watching that nonsense back, and you can keep the junk you welded together. You see this stuff by the roadside of any country bumpkin that bought a welder. (or a Chainsaw).
  There's no welding.
  
  There are lots of layers that you don't see. In order to make my work look effortless, there is a lot of hidden work, hidden layers of support and putting things together. I only work with fasteners. And I enjoy that. It adds to my esthetics. But it also means that all the structure needs to be built from the inside.
  
  You always drive past, and never once think of posting it on Slashdot.
  Yes, fine art isn't allowed on Slashdot. Nerds don't get it and it's not news either. I'm a nerd who enjoys art, but I know that's pretty rare.
6. Re:Is it really a robot? by retchdog · 2013-07-02 09:07 · Score: 1
  
  and of course it's in Florida. looks like you were right on the money.
  
  --
  "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
7. Re:Is it really a robot? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 09:43 · Score: 0
  
  It's really a Robot Sculpture... really!
8. Re:Is it really a robot? by BlueStrat · 2013-07-02 10:12 · Score: 1
  
  Is it really a robot if it doesn't fulfill a practical purpose? Robot is derived from a word meaning "slave" because it does work in place of a person. If it is unable to do work, by conjoining AI with mobility, does it really fit the bill? What makes a windmill not a robot? What makes a drill not a robot?
  Android: sure, robot: I'm not convinced.
  ["CrocodileDundee"]
  "Hah! That's not a robot!..."
  "...THIS is a ROBOT!!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj7DgklsZDk
  [/"CrocodileDundee']
  Strat
  
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  Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
9. Re:Is it really a robot? by Smallpond · 2013-07-02 12:02 · Score: 1
  
  Is it really a robot if it doesn't fulfill a practical purpose? Robot is derived from a word meaning "slave" because it does work in place of a person. If it is unable to do work, by conjoining AI with mobility, does it really fit the bill? What makes a windmill not a robot? What makes a drill not a robot?
  Android: sure, robot: I'm not convinced.
  The origin of the word robot is from art! It comes from the story R.U.R. by Karel Capek. So complaining that these are not robots because they are art is iron(ic).
Is this an advertisement? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 07:52 · Score: 0

looks like one.
Huh? Wuh? by wjcofkc · 2013-07-02 08:00 · Score: 2

Ok, so I take a brief catnap, wake up and go check out slashdot where I see this story. I am now going back to sleep in hopes that I wake up for real, at which point I will return to slashdot and see that in fact this was never posted.

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1. Re:Huh? Wuh? by ctr2sprt · 2013-07-02 08:04 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yeah, the summary reads like word salad. Hell, the woman's name reads like word salad.
2. Re:Huh? Wuh? by peon_a-z,A-Z,0-9$_+! · 2013-07-02 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  I double-checked my calender to make sure today wasn't April Fool's day...
  Just in-case you're wondering, its not.
3. Re:Huh? Wuh? by CanHasDIY · 2013-07-02 08:24 · Score: 2
  
  Hell, the woman's name reads like word salad.
  Oh, good - I was afraid it was just me...
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
4. Re:Huh? Wuh? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 10:07 · Score: 0
  
  the woman's name reads like word salad..
  and trashing a person's name has what to do with anything?
A rose is a rose is a rose.... by Drewdad · 2013-07-02 08:39 · Score: 0

"she jumped from being a math whiz to studying for an EE to working as a programmer to art" In other words, she's a hippie.
1. Re:A rose is a rose is a rose.... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 09:23 · Score: 0
  
  In other words, she's a hippie.
  Which means maybe, just *maybe*, you might have a chance.
We? by mopower70 · 2013-07-02 08:42 · Score: 1

If she's the only "human representative" in the organization, who is "we"? When working with my toaster, I don't generally use the pronoun "we".
Art is in the eye of the beholder by Powercntrl · 2013-07-02 08:46 · Score: 1

Not reproductions of robots from famous works of fiction.
Not models of actual robots used in real life.
Not functional in any way.
This looks like something a young kid would build with some super glue and a box full of electrical fittings and cabinet hardware from Home Depot. What's next, bleach bottle pigs?

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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
With every post from Roblimo... by Slartibartfast · 2013-07-02 08:54 · Score: 1

I miss Hemos and Taco that much the more.
tone it down slashdot. by nimbius · 2013-07-02 09:03 · Score: 2

And they get shown in fine art galleries, so we know they're art, not just ordinary robots.

MoMA? LACMA? nope, according to the website we're just showcasing around the florida area. sure, they can be regular art, lets just take a step back from comparing it to works from artists like Brendan Carney, Jonathan Hartshorn, Thury Sigurthorsdottir, or Scott Lawrence

We met Sarah purely by chance.
Perhaps. Seeing as slashdot video articles are commonly geared exclusively toward slashvertisement I'll fashion another theory. People ignore these like the plague, so to drum up more support (and targeted advertising interest) you gin-up a nice fluff piece and build some click metrics.

Sarah assembles robots from found parts that others might think are just ordinary industrial detritus
thats because they are industrial detritus. these are the to slashdot as Folk Art is to a 62 year old empty nester, only most of us are intelligent enough not to venture on down to the gift shop at the St Petersburg museum (thats the world famous Florida location, not the Moscow one) and blow $340 on a paperweight because it reminds us of robots.

Perhaps the Quantum Computer that runs the Orbiting Robot Laboratory directed us to her.
Perhaps it can redirect your milton freeman head out of your moneygrabbing arse and point it in the direction of meaningful news for nerds instead of a middle aged EE Dropout who moved to florida to follow her true calling hocking scrap steel figurines.

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Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Re:tone it down slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 20:02 · Score: 0
  
  blow $340 on a paperweight because it reminds us of robots
  Especially as this is Slashdot. Most of us could build our own functional robot for $340. Probably several functional robots.
2. Re:tone it down slashdot. by Monkey-Man2000 · 2013-07-02 20:07 · Score: 1
  
  Oh god, mod this up please. /. has really gone down the tubes since CmdrTaco left and DICE bought them. I really don't understand why I still come here (or even still have /. as my homepage anymore). A few more articles like this and I'm gone for good... Sad really, because /. has been my homepage since about '98-'99... Let's see if this gets deleted like some of my other posts criticizing them...
  
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  This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
Naked slashvertisement by argStyopa · 2013-07-02 09:10 · Score: 1

-1, really?
I mean, it's cool, but can we all just post links to our friends' art sites? I mean, she's basically a junk artist - not being dismissive, mind you, as some of it is cool; I'm just questioning the topicality and relevance to /.

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-Styopa
These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For. by Guano_Jim · 2013-07-02 09:36 · Score: 1

I was kind of hoping for an artist that uses robots to creat traditional sculptures, maybe some combination of CNC and sensor data and 3D printing. That would have been a coolburger drenched in awesomesauce.
These are great little sculptures made from high-tech yard waste, but they're not really robots in any meaningful sense of the term.

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3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
someone seems confused between looks like and is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 09:45 · Score: 0

more correctly she's a found object sculptor who's creations look like popular images of robots.
If it has no moving parts, it can be a flippin' robot
a reprap is more of a robot than that kitsch.
Made from robot parts? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 10:10 · Score: 1

Posting as AC because I modded here. Looking at her website, it's pretty clear she's not using "robot parts". This one, for example, is mostly plumbin pipes sitting inside a chain-link fence post cap. Basically, this lade just glues together a bunch of random junk, calls it "art," and now it's on /. Amazing.
1. Re:Made from robot parts? by Smallpond · 2013-07-02 12:06 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah. and I bet her laboratory isn't really in orbit, either.
2. Re:Made from robot parts? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 15:38 · Score: 0
  
  from the "about" page...
  "Our sculptures are constructed with fasteners – no adhesives, no welding. This means the components are bolted and riveted together in order to provide a strong and stable art object. There are often multiple levels of structure inside the sculpture that one cannot see, but which are necessary to create the effortless “these parts belong together” feel which is a hallmark of CyberCraft Robots."
Rolling for Slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 10:16 · Score: 1

No Dice.
It's labeled entertainment by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 14:10 · Score: 0

Hey guess what! They aren't real robots. They are sculptures... for fun. Maybe THAT"s why this video is labeled "entertainment."
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/
The rayguns don't shoot real rays either, so don't hurt yourselves over that one.
Previous Art by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 20:41 · Score: 0

Check out the Mutoid Waste Company works.