Mark Pauline
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Mark Pauline (born December 14, 1953) is an American performance artist, new media artist, and machine inventor. He is known as founder and director of Survival Research Laboratories.[1][2]
Early life and education
After high school he had a job at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, as a sub-contractor maintaining target robots.[3] He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.[3]
Career
Pauline founded SRL in 1978 and it is considered the premier practitioner of "industrial performing arts", and the forerunner of large scale machine performance. Although acknowledged as a major influence on popular competitions pitting remote-controlled robots and machines against each other, such as BattleBots and Robot Wars, Pauline shies away from rules-bound competition preferring a more anarchic approach. Machines are liberated and re-configured away from the functions they were originally meant to perform.
Pauline has written of SRL, "Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare."[4][5] Since its beginning through the end of 2006, SRL has conducted about 48 shows, with long titles such as "A Cruel and Relentless Plot to Pervert the Flesh of Beasts to Unholy Uses".[6]
In the summer of 1982, Pauline severely damaged his right hand while experimenting with solid rocket fuel.[7] In August 1990, ArtPark, a state-sponsored arts festival in Lewiston, New York, cancelled a Pauline performance when it turned out he intended "to cover a sputtering Rube Goldberg spaceship with numerous Bibles" that would "serve as thermal protective shields" and be burned to ashes in the course of the performance.[8]
According to Pauline "I like to make machines that can just do their own shows... machines that can do all that machines in the science fiction novels can do. I want to be there to make those dreams real."[9]
References
- ^ Cobb, Chris (2018-02-07). "Machine Art that Shoots Flames and Rips Stuff Apart". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ Whiting, Sam (April 26, 2012). "Mark Pauline, fiery showman, now into machines". SFGate. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ a b Hicks, Jesse (2012-10-09). "Terrorism as art: Mark Pauline's dangerous machines". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ "Survival Research Labs in Los Angeles". Wired. Apr 4, 2005. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
- ^ Interface Art + Tech in the Bay Area. Duke University Museum of Art. 1998. ISBN 9780938989189. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
- ^ "A Cruel and Relentless Plot to Pervert the Flesh of Beasts to Unholy Uses". srl.org. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
- ^ Miami Herald, January 29, 1984, [1] Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1990, "Volume2: Subgenius Digest V2 #9". Archived from the original on 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2007-03-09..
- ^ Jardin, Xeni. Interview with Mark Pauline. NPR news, April 21, 2005.
- Sterling, Bruce. "Is Phoenix Burning". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
- McDermon, Daniel (January 5, 2018). "Fire-Breathing Robots Bring Anarchy to a Chelsea Art Gallery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
External links
- Survival Research Labs
- Appearance on KRON-TV's "SFO with Steve Jamison" variety show in 1981 (San Francisco, Calif.)
- National Public Radio report on SRL, with link to radio broadcast
- comprehensive July 1996 Wired magazine article on Pauline and SRL by Bruce Sterling
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