Los Moribundos

variable dimensions, mixed media, 2013

Los moribundos (the moribunds) is an installation with two insect-likes tripods doing uncontrolled movements. Each of the three legs is connected to two servo motors that make random movements with regard to it absolute position as well as to its velocity. The “brain” of the moribundos is an Atmega16 Microcontroller that is welded without any printed circuit board directly with wires and fixed on the center Plexiglas plate. The moribundos are connected with a white spiral-shaped cable up from the roof.

The work undermines the expectations of the visitor observing some regularly working robots. In this case, the robots are moribund like animals in an experimental laboratory, unable to escape or control their movements. Connected to an umbilical cord, the creatures only show some poor death throes and perhaps provoke an uneasy feeling for the visitor. However, the installation made with simple materials like servos, cables, metal sheets, wires or castors, has a distinctive Do-It-Yourself character and mock at the idea of super-robot omnipotence by presenting rather pitiful creatures.

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