WORKS
Battle of the Pyramids
Elmo TMX robots, Hardware tech, Elmo Skins, Red Carpet, Video documentation
12.5 x 6 x 5 in
2009
Battle of the Pyramids was a robotic performance installation featuring reconfigured Elmo toys performing military maneuvers in rigid choreographed formations. This artwork explored and used sensors and wireless communication to create clusters of Elmo’s moving in exact synchronisation in response to a call to arms. The robot's movements emulated the rigid and postured fighting strategies of Napoleonic warfare. These strategies, employed in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, were particularly idiosyncratic in Egypt where they were persistently performed without consideration of either the desert environment or the fighting strategies of the enemy. The work is a testimony to the tragic consequences of imperialism and the dangers, follies and sadness of a rationale for blind obedience that makes victims out of warriors.
Photos by Stanton Schell