http://www.normill.ca/artpage.html

THE HELPLESS ROBOT

I am fascinated by the idea of mechanical devices which have unpredictable “lives of their own”… sets of internal rules and cycles which give them autonomous and surprising behaviors. Since 1966, I have been building kinetic devices that have deliberately minimal visual appeal, yet a strong behavioral dimension. Their behavior derives partly from the materials that I employ… electronic components, motors, pulleys, gears, etc. The tendency for such materials to wear and break echos my own mortality and provides me with yet another way to transcend my own intention and control.

As an artist, I am concerned with the social framework in which I present my creations to the public. I believe that for too long Western society has clung to the idea that exhibiting in galleries and museums is integral to art practice. The result has been the alienation of large sectors of a society who feel intimidated by the highly controlled, self-conscious aura of the average gallery. Therefore my projects over the last twelve years have sought out ways to bring art to all people of a given place, especially those people who tend to avoid institutionalized art venues.

The above conceptual mix — experimentation, machine behavior and vulnerability, computer physicality, broadened public access — has led me inevitiably to robotics. It has become for me but another form of portraiture, rife with myriad possibilites of introspection, irony, drama, farce, and social commentary.