Mark Pauline (born December 14, 1953) is an American
performance artist
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
, new media artist, and machine inventor. He is known as founder and director of
Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an American performance art group which pioneered the genre of large-scale machine performance. Founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline in San Francisco the group is known in particular for performances where custo ...
.
Early life and education
After high school he had a job at
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso, Florida, Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County.
The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test ...
in Florida, as a sub-contractor maintaining target robots.
He is a 1977 graduate of
Eckerd College
Eckerd College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. Founded in 1958, part of the campus is waterfront (area), waterfront and beach on Boca Ciega ...
in
St. Petersburg, Florida.
Career
Pauline founded SRL in 1978 and it is considered the premier practitioner of "industrial performing arts", and the forerunner of large scale machine performance. Although acknowledged as a major influence on popular competitions pitting remote-controlled robots and machines against each other, such as ''
BattleBots'' and ''
Robot Wars Robot Wars may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Robot Wars'' (film), 1993
** ''Robot Wars'' (soundtrack)
* ''Robot Wars'' (TV series), a British TV competition, 1998–2004 and 2016–2018
** '' Nickelodeon Robot Wars'', a U.S. TV game show ...
'', Pauline shies away from rules-bound competition preferring a more anarchic approach. Machines are liberated and re-configured away from the functions they were originally meant to perform.
Pauline has written of SRL, "Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare." Since its beginning through the end of 2006, SRL has conducted about 48 shows, with long titles such as "A Cruel and Relentless Plot to Pervert the Flesh of Beasts to Unholy Uses".
In the summer of 1982, Pauline severely damaged his right hand while experimenting with solid rocket fuel. In August 1990, ArtPark, a state-sponsored arts festival in
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Niagara County, New York, Niagara County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named aft ...
, cancelled a Pauline performance when it turned out he intended "to cover a sputtering Rube Goldberg spaceship with numerous Bibles" that would "serve as thermal protective shields" and be burned to ashes in the course of the performance.
According to Pauline "I like to make machines that can just do their own shows... machines that can do all that machines in the science fiction novels can do. I want to be there to make those dreams real."
[Jardin, Xeni]
Interview with Mark Pauline.
NPR news, April 21, 2005.
References
*
*
External links
Survival Research LabsAppearance on KRON-TV's "SFO with Steve Jamison" variety show in 1981 (San Francisco, Calif.)National Public Radio report on SRL, with link to radio broadcast
1953 births
Living people
20th-century American inventors
American performance artists
Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
Culture of San Francisco
American roboticists
Robotic art
San Francisco Art Institute alumni
Sarasota High School alumni
Eckerd College alumni
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