A new home on the web!

Good news everyone!

Automata now has its own url: AutomataNOLA.org

Look for posts coming very soon about the first Robot Parade hacker/maker meetup. It will be within the next 2 weeks. Start collecting you motors, buttons, gears, wheels, sprockets, and anything else you might want to put into a robot.

Also please vote on what the categories for the prizes should be: https://www.voteit.com/v/4JTT8dRv2JmduLR

Volatilia at Barrister’s, and the Robot Parade!

VOLATILIA

Opening Saturday, November 10, 6-9pm

through December 3

Barrister’s Gallery
2331 St. Claude Ave.
New Orleans, LA

Averting this season’s squashed attempt at rallying limited resources for an annual Automata exhibit, we instead have concentrated efforts on a condensed exhibition at Barrister’s Gallery, called Volatilia.   This revised show will feature mechanical sculpture as well as experiments in static 2 & 3d work, hooked together by our new theme.

Volatilia is a pseudo-mystical exposition concerning the ephemera of escape, or, the debris that results from the efforts it takes to do so.

Volatilia is a latin word meaning:

matters of flight

flying things

of birdsrelated familiar words:  volatile, volare

Volatilia is seen in a biblical phrase meaning “the birds of heaven,” though I think it gets translated another boring way, so maybe I’m wrong.  It makes sense to think of volatilia as things that fly in gaseous, infinite realms, like Mrs. Whatsit as a centaur in A Wrinkle In Time.

Volatilia is also the title of one of Coleridge’s notebooks:

With self-deprecating humour, Coleridge alluded to the impossibility of pinning down anything as elusive as a thought by calling his later notebooks ‘Fly-catchers’: the notebook pages function like fly paper, trapping the living thoughts or ‘winged words’ and preserving them for all time, but at the cost of that very living quality which made them worth preserving.  A variation on this title occurs in Notebook 56, which bears the title ‘Volatilia or Day-book for bird-liming Small Thoughts, impounding Stray Thoughts, and holding for trial doubtful Thoughts’

Please click here to view the working list of artists, and visit Barrister’s Gallery for more information in the coming weeks.

THE ROBOT PARADE!  Sponsored by Git Hub.

No longer just flying robots, but a slew of as many varieties a krewe can manage.

H. Cole Wiley is coordinating the parade, and hosting workshops in his upper 9th ward studio.  The parade is still projected for mid-November, likely in the St. Roch neighborhood, with several great neighborhood partnerships in the works.  If you would like to participate or get more information, please add your name and contact to our Robot Parade spreadsheet under the “I am interested” category, or via this blog.

Be sure to add our facebook page, Automata New Orleans, and twitter feed for more frequent news updates!

Changes Afoot

Due to difficulties in fund-raising this year, we will have to postpone the main Automata exhibit at the Ironworks, and our preview at the Ogden’s Library.

Automata remains a sponsor of the Robot Parade on November 18th (including the Krewe of Spy vs. Spy Flying Robots!).

The Models and Miniatures exhibit at Barrister’s Gallery is also transformed!  Several Automata artists will participate, but the focus of the exhibit has changed, and so has the name- it is now called Volatilia, and still runs from November 10 through December 3.

We will continue to post updates about all the exciting developments in the Robot Parade and the re-workings of the exhibit at Barrister’s Gallery.  If you have been working on a project for Automata 2012, please do contact us, as we are still working out the details.  Otherwise, we look forward to this year’s events and re-organizing for next year’s main exhibit!

In the interlude, some Oskar Schlemmer for everyone:
Das Triadische Ballet

Flight of all sorts is a decent theme to ponder.

Flying Robot Parade! Sunday, November 18, 2012

Everyone interested in drone technology and variations on flying machines are welcome to join us for the inaugural Spy vs. Spy picnic and parade in New Orleans during Automata!  The parade and picnic will take place on Sunday, November 18, in New Orleans– location and other info is still to come.

In addition:  Automata’s machine show opening night at the Ironworks is Saturday, Nov. 17, and all participants are welcome to bring their flying robots to the exhibit for some flying demonstrations.  We will work to provide a map of areas in New Orleans where DIY flyers can roam freely.

Two great items of news:

H. Cole Wiley will head organization of the Flying Robot Parade.  Cole is a code-writer, sculptor, and inventor and has already been indispensible to the carrying-on of Automata- he will be one of the great forces behind the show this year.

& thanks to Cole, our first sponsor of Spy vs. Spy is GitHub!  A perfect match!

Details to come!

Cole will bring you further updates on the Flying Robot Parade and on activities and developments with Automata, and information on our sponsors and how to sign up or show up for Spy vs. Spy and surrounding activities.
A brief resume- he is about to finish his degree at LSU, Baton Rouge in Sculpture, with a minor in Digital Art and Computer Science, after which he will spend some time in New Orleans working on Automata and his other projects-  including Decode72 design solutions.  Look for one of his installations at the Ogden Museum later this year.
More news on the near horizon!

Mardi Gras Laughs at Mortals & Robots

Once again, the hubris of trying to accomplish anything practical on this physical plane, that might involve gears and cogs of any material, is foiled by the grand spectre of Carnival– it’s all around us.  Mardi Gras does not give a sh*t.  Mardi Gras is eating all of our hadron collidors.  So, friends of Automata, and prospective participants, here’s our last attempt before a respectably slight period of rest after the big day itself, at a brief update, and reassurance that business is never usual.

Your humble rouser of makers of machines of wonder wishes to convey the following:

The deadlines are meant only as sign-posts.  We are working with individual artists regarding any extra financial considerations and calculating the basic costs of running Automata this year, from our Ogden gala to the flying robot parade to the takeover of the Ironworks to the pitcher plant choir planned for Models and Miniatures…  You need only contact us to begin this discussion.  Otherwise, as usual, the curious are welcome to contact us for participation almost to the month of the show.

FLYING ROBOTS?  We are doing it for the children!  Krewe of Spy vs. Spy hereby declared a true phenomenon.  We will hold a picnic and parade, tentatively set for Sunday, Nov. 18.    Specific details should be nailed down later this spring.

In the meantime, if you have any questions and need to speak to us right away, you will find us here:

Money!

Changes in fundraising and deadlines!
As it happens in New Orleans, resources are limited and often the same people you work with are working on something else that needs a lot of time and effort- and so we are postponing the cheap art auction and purely local fundraising events in favor of applying for kickstarter for the end of February.

We might have a bbq in March, anyway…..

This all means that if you wish to be considered for any kind of grant- from travel expense to materials- we will need to know by February 18, as we must raise the bulk of our budget as early as possible.  We’re working with individuals now to create our projected money needs- we will try to stay flexible in the coming months, but it’s better to talk to us early.

Especially if you want to come to New Orleans – we’re coordinating travel groups for sharing road and shipping expenses.

We’re also working on accommodation  arrangements for visiting artists throughout the month of the show.

Money!  We will need it!  It’s a lot of fun raising it and giving it away!  We love handing money over to artists to help them with their projects!  Our priority again starts with grants for local artists and covering basic show expenses, like space rental, and moves out from there.  More on all that very soon.   Proposal deadline is still Sept. 1 but we have a lot of leeway in Automata for last minute projects- don’t hesitate to contact us.

Other news:  the 2012 Artists list is begun- please refer to the list of pages at the left of the home page.

Also, h/t Dug North:  this is Wunderland!

2012 Announcement:

Several pieces of great news to share:

Saturday, November  3, 6-9pm we will hold our special Automata preview evening in the beautiful, chapel-like Patrick Taylor Library at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

We’ll feature the work of New Orleans and Southern artists to begin the month of Automata exhibitions, including Ben Reid‘s delightful clattering flying machines from North Carolina.

We are also very happy to announce that Simeon Coxe will return to New Orleans for Automata, and that Silver Apples will be the main feature of our evening at the Ogden.  Simeon will also bring new artwork to install at the show, which can be seen both at the Ogden and later in November, at the Ironworks.

Simeon Coxe, via the Beijing Global Times

Tickets for the event will be limited, as the legal capacity of the library is limited.    We will have advance tickets available.  Admission is set at $10- ($5- for Ogden members).

A huge thanks to the Ogden Museum for co-sponsoring this event!  The moment I laid eyes on the library I hoped to hold at least some aspect of Automata in it- the architecture is unique in New Orleans, and provides the most elegant and haunting setting for any kind of performance, let alone an arena for mechanical sculpture.   Many thanks to curator Bradley Sumrall for putting the seed in my head, and to the wonderful Ogden staff for being so supportive.   I’ve written about the Ogden below, if you don’t believe me.  This is a rare window of opportunity for a show like ours, as the Museum is working on the capital needed to finish restoring the Library and installing artwork from their permanent collection.   Anyone who feels strongly about not just preserving our past but making sure it is useful among the living and available to all, I encourage you to find out about the Patrick Taylor Library, and support its restoration in any way you can.  In the meantime- I feel positive that we will be able to raise the funds necessary- a place like this is open to shows like ours!

If you are a fan of the legendary Silver Apples, this evening in the library will be a special one.

Simeon was a big part of the spirit of Automata last year, and it means a lot that he will return- Silver Apples was our closing act in 2011 in that great show at the AllWays Lounge, and he brought a most pleasing plunger vs. fan saw installation on the last weekend, so it is fitting that he brings us back in style in 2012, and be a larger presence throughout the show, in between world tours to far flung fantastic lands.

Details on purchasing advance tickets or sponsoring this event coming soon.

View of Patrick Taylor Library, rotunda to stage, via WBGO on Flickr (click for more images)

The Call to Artists has been updated to reflect these announcements.  We have several exciting plans up our sleeves that we can’t announce just yet, so please stay tuned!