Ye Olde Internet is slightly lighting up with the news of an art installation at the David Zwirner art gallery in New York City. What we have here is an animatronic “fembot” that dances and talks. At one level… big whoop. Animatronic figures have been around for decades. Note that this particular figure is connected to a pole in “her” belly that runs into the wall; power, control and probably physical support are run through the pole to undefined but quite possibly sizable machinery on the other side. So this isn’t a stand-alone robot. And of course, this being a New York art Project, it can’t be something just interesting and attractive, it also has to be weird and, well, icky. The scantily-clad fembot is covered in “dirt marks,” wears as “witch mask,” is equipped with facial recognition abilities so that it’s dead eyes will follow you, and it speaks in the artists distinctly male voice. Bleah.
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However, there are some aspects to this which do seem particularly impressive… specifically, the arms and hands. Their movements appear very realistic… very fluid and humanlike. If some work was done to cover up the clearly mechanical joints (especially the shoulder), they might be indistinguishable from real human. If only a really good connection to the human brain could be workedup, arms like these might be really… errr… handy for amputees.
The important work on this was apparently done by Spectral Motion, a Hollywood special effects monster-maker (Hellboy 2, for example).