Norman White
Menage (1974)
This installation consists of five robots, four of them placed on the ceiling, crawling back and forth along separate tracks, and a fifth located on the floor. Each robot is equipped with a scanner, designed to point itself towards any light source, and a spotlight. The robots therefore tend to point towards each other, developing a complex group behavior as the move along the ceiling. This piece was built in homage to W. Grey Walter, an early pioneer in brain research and the artificial modelling of organic behavior.
Materials: Plexiglas, stepping motors, and custom electronics.
Splish Splash Two (1975)
A large light mural (2.5 x 12 m.) that simulates raindrops falling randomly on the surface of a pond. The piece was commisioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the foyer of its Vancouver offices.
Materials: aluminum, polycarbonate plastic, incandescent bulbs, and custom electronics.
Facing Out Laying Low (1977)
A microcomputer-controlled, interactive robot. It surveys its surroundings from a fixed point, and responds to activity it finds “interesting” with a variety of audio responses.
Materials: Plexiglas, motors, custom electronics.
Hearsay (1985)
A telecommunications event based upon the children’s game whereby a secret message is whispered from person to person till it arrives back at its originator. In this case a message was sent around the world in 24 hours, roughly following the sun, via a global computer network (I. P. Sharp Associates). Each of the eight participating centres was charged with translating the message into a different language before sending it on.
Telephonic Arm Wrestling(1986)
A collaborative telecommunications project undertaken by White and fellow artist, Doug Back. The idea was to allow contestants in two different cities to arm-wrestle, using motorized force-transmitting systems interconnected by a telephone data link. First succcessfully exhibited during a 1986 link-up between the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, and the Artculture Resource Centre, Toronto. Sponsored by the McLuhan Programme (Director: Prof. Derrick DeKerkhove), University of Toronto.
Materials: Steel, Plexiglas, motors, custom electronics.
The Helpless Robot (1987-96)
An interactive robot that has no motors, but instead must depend upon its synthesized voice to encourage people to move it as it would “like.” Described by White as “essentially an unfinishable work,” the machine attemps to assess and predict human behavior by asking visitor to move it, first in a soft, pleading voice, later on adopting harsher tones that indicate discomfort and impatience. The robot can communicate in English, Spanish, and French.
Materials: plywood, angle-iron, proximity sensors, modified 80386 computer, and custom electronics.
Them Fuckin’ Robots (1988)
White and fellow artist Laura Kikauka each built an electro-mechanical sex machine (hers, female; his, male) without consulting each other on the particulars, apart from the dimensions of the engaging organs. They then brought these two machines together for a public performance. The male machine, “the first and last anthropomorphic robot I’ve ever built”, according to White, responds to the magnetic fields generated by the female organ, thereby increasing its rate of breathing and moving its limbs, simultaneously charging a capacitor to strobing “orgasm.” The female machine, on the other hand, is a diverse assemblage including a boiling kettle, a squirting oil pump, a twitching sewing machine treadle, and huge solenoid on a fur-covered board — all hanging from an old bedspring and energized by an electronic power sequencer.
Materials: various found objects, aluminum, steel, motors, springs, solenoids, and custom electronics.
The Music Lesson (1984)
This kinetic sculptuer is made of a wooden box in which White placed recordings of children practicing music. Several motors respond to the pitch of the instruments played in the recordings, with the artist’s voice joining in the cacophony as it increases in intensity.