a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
1980-1 – Mark Fisher – Teacher – "The Wall" The Architects' journal: Volume 196, Issues 14-21 – 1992 The work of mechanical engineer Jonathan Park and architect Mark Fisher, who together form the rock set specialists Fisher Park. This pair met as teachers at the Architectural Association in 1976, a time of radical experimentation. Among …
Source: Mark Fisher: staged architecture by Eric Holding – 2000 Dynamat Whilst studying for his Diploma at the AA (1969-71) under Peter Cook, Fisher continued to investigate the potential of inflatable technology, and took a particular interest in the way it could create environments able to respond quickly to a user's changing physical …
Read More “1971 – “Dynamat” – Mark Fisher & Simon Conolly (British)”
Source: Mark Fisher: staged architecture by Eric Holding – 2000 Inflatables and Structures Fisher had seen his first anthropomorphic inflatable Mother of the Arts in 1966. It was an inflatable woman designed by fellow Architectural Association students for the annual Lord Mayor's procession. It was based on Jean Tinguely's She, a long, hollow reclining woman …
Read More “1968-9 – “Automat” – Mark Fisher & David Harrison (British)”
Jonah's House [La Casa Jonás in Spanish] Developed as a project named "Movil" [Cell or Cellular in English]. A pneumatic cellular structure whereby the wallsegments could be elongated or reduced according to the air-pressure in bellows attached to each side of the cell or segment. Source: http://arqueologiadelfuturo.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/la-casa-que-aprende-ii-197x-la-casa.html LA CASA JONAS, 1968 AUTOR: José Miguel de …
Read More “1968 – “La Casa Jonás” – José Miguel de Prada Poole (Spanish)”
SEEING THE ELEPHANT. Not Barnum's, But the Great Mechanical Wonder. Few theatre-goers have any intelligent conception of the mechanism of some of the "animals" that are in the cast of a modern spectacular drama or comic opera. A long time ago when the heifer was part and parcel of "Evangeline," it caused an infinite amount …
Read More “1891 – Mechanical Elephant – Woolson Morse (American)”