Artist carves army of robots out of polystyrene

Michael Salter’s 22-foot-tall Styrobot (accompanied here by a squadron of homuncular mini-murder bots) isn’t exactly environmentally friendly… but then again, maybe rampaging kill bots shouldn’t be.

Michael Salter [Official Site via DVICE]

1. [rossgrady]

   It’s actually even better than your headline suggests, because Mike doesn’t *carve* them, he assembles them out of assloads of those custom-formed styrofoam shipping spacers that come surrounding every-damn-thing electronic that you buy. Here’s a video: http://www.vimeo.com/890195

2. [claud9999]

   Given that the styrofoam packaging was recycled from (primarily) computer and appliance packing, I think it’s far more enviro than throwing it in the landfill. Most of the pieces were not carved, but there are some carved to give it a bit more of a robotic appearance.

   Credit where credit is due, this is being shown at the San Jose Museum of Art. Excellent exhibit, I particularly liked the gallery of intimately-drawn robot portraits.

   Oh, and boingboing totally missed the 01sj conference this year, excellent art + technology conference in downtown SJ (the ugly stepchild of SF, oft ignored as having no culture.)

3. [michaelportent]

   I agree with Claud9999. It’s perhaps the most environmentally sound thing you could do with polystyrene. Given he could’ve trashed it or even worse, burned it (like they do with their trash in some countries), this is a fun, eco-friendly thing to do.

4. [clueless in brooklyn]

   besides the environment (not always the most important thing to people who are obsessed with gadgets)- it’s just an awesome, dynamic object. pretty cool.