A robot that can shit

Nam June Paik, is a korean artist who designed (in 1964) a robot that can shit in the streets of New York and call/mingle people who pass-by. According to an interview in Wired (back in 2000), it seems that it’s the only pooping robot (well except Wim Delvoye’s Cloaqua which is more a machine than an anthropomorphic robot). It’s called “Robot 456″ and the antropomorphism in this case was related to its innovative capacity to XXX.

(Picture Photograph: Hanns Sohm | © Nam June Paik taken here)

Why do i blog this? I like some of his statements like “I make technology ridiculous”, the way he manipulated technology and humour is fantastic.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 22nd, 2006 at 7:36 pm and is filed under art, Weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “A robot that can shit”

  1. Jean-Baptiste Says:
    January 23rd, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    There is also the Vaucanson duck (le canard de Vaucanson).
    Some photos circulate on the net but it seems that the original has disappeared.
    It has been rebuilt in Chambéry near Grenoble in France
    http://www.miralab.unige.ch/subpages/automates/eightennth/im_vaucanson/canard.htm

  2. nicolas Says:
    January 23rd, 2006 at 8:16 pm

    Of course the Vaucanson duck is one of the first robot (and it could also poop) but it’s less a piece of art and rather a scientific artifacts (of course one can discuss the distinction between art and science and that time ;) )

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