As if the slime mould robot wasn’t enough to convince both dancers and choreographers in the Contemporary Dance game that their respective numbers were up, Peter William Holden kicks us when we’re down with a bunch of robot umbrellas shakin it to “Singin’ in the Rain”… I’m off to be a showgirl in Paris while there’s still time.
Installation artist Peter William Holden built a delightful machine consisting of eight umbrellas that “dance” to “Singin’ In The Rain.” The video of the mechanical performance is terrific. From Holden’s description of the work:
Busby Berkeley choreographed dancers to mimic the motions of machines and modern inventions. “AutoGene” is the flipside of this. It’s a simple aesthetic looking robot composed of eight modified umbrellas mounted in a circular pattern. A cocktail of air hoses and electrical cables join these umbrellas to a central computer which enables “AutoGene” to produce a choreographed dance to music which erodes the machine’s mechanical qualities and transforms the mundane umbrellas into magical animated objects.
