Mark Pauline’s Survival Research Labs Talk at Sonoma County Museum

Mark Pauline, the founder and director of Survival Research Labs (aka SRL), recently spoke as part of the Mad Science exhibition at the Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa, CA.

Founded in the late 1970’s, SRL pioneered the non-practical use of massive industrial / militaristic technology for the sake of achieving pointless tasks with optimal theatrical impact, energy displacement, and noise. Important achievements include reeducating a machine designed for sophisticated Arc and Spot Welding to instead beat mummified coyotes with a Louisville Slugger. As Mark says, this may be why he is sometimes confused for an artist.

He talks in detail about the recent SRL performance at the museum (An Explosion of Ungovernable Rage) and discusses the baseball bat-wielding Motoman robot and The Spine Robot, two of the newest SRL machines which debuted at the show, amongst other topics. Parts two and three of the talk are below.

Part 2:

Part 3:

mikl-em
Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.

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