Survival Research Laboratories

Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) was founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. It is a group of around 50 creative technicians based out of the Bay Area in California that spends their time taking machinery that would normally be used in the fields of science, industry, and warfare, and then using them in different artistic fashion. They regularly put on shows that involve robots interacting with one another along with some cool special effects. Around 4 of these demonstrations have been done all across the United States and Europe since 1979. SRL has been considered the pioneer of industrial performing arts much like groups like burning man and the cacophony society.
Their shows feature a lot of machines destroying each other. This has created a lot of criticism. Many art lovers say that they are merely putting on "art shows of technological violence." But while to many it is pure violence, to them it is a way of bringing attention to the destruction that machines cause in industry and war. These shows are dangerous,noisy, and definitely entertaining. They have created some really cool machines. Examples of these are a six-legged running machine, a shockwave cannon (a cannon that shoots a shockwave of air, shattering glass remotely), and the pitching machine which a machine that launches two by four pieces of lumber. They pride themselves on taking old useless trash and making these really neat machines.
To some people, this group is a bunch of crazy, anti-Christian war mongers. Some say they have killed live animals in some of their shows. SRL denies these claims. Other people believe that this group is trying to bring attention to technological violence. Everyone agrees that these guys are kinda crazy in the brain. Some of their works have featured animal skins animated by mechanical endoskeletons. Weird!!
I'm not quite sure what to make of this group. Many people have different beliefs about this group. Maybe that is what they want. These shows have something in them for everyone. These shows fulfill the small desire within all of us for chaos and destruction. They capture our attentions with the noise and violence. The shows make us have an adrenaline rush. We love violence! In fact, if they were to make mistakes during their shows, people could die! I also think that they are trying to bring attention to machinery and how it affects our lives. Are machines good for mankind or are they bad? They take machine parts that we would consider safe and useful and they turn them into these mindless killing machines. For this reason, Mark Pauline the creator is considered an artist. He actually doesn't even consider himself an artist.


http://srl.org/machines.html