Clanking Replicator (2005)

The Clanking Replicator is a whimsical machine posing sociable alternatives to our relationship with convince technologies. The project is designed in consideration of our desire to use machines and automated process to replace sincere and subtle human interaction. In contrast to evasiveness of machines such as the automatic teller machine, and self checkout, the Clanking Replicator makes its uncanny presence indescribable but known. Interactions with the replicator create emergent behaviors based on previous encounters without out concern for efficiency of predictability.

The term 'Clanking Replicator' refers to a fictional self-replicating machine (similar to a Von Neumann Universal Constructor) relying on conventional large-scale technology and automation. The replication is a reciprocating process with the capacity to gather energy, raw materials, then process the raw materials into finished components, and finally assemble them into a copy of itself. This fictional concept of self-replication dates at least as far as back as Karl Caspek's 1921 play Rossum's Universal Robots. In a factory which manufactures a class 'artificial people' who are the humble servants of real people as a play on fascism.

The Clanking Replicator began through scripting the machines behaviors in 3D animation software. The replicator was passed through a field of randomly generated particles, to harvest digital material in order to create more replicators. Once the particles are captured through the intake ports they are encapsulated in a mesh and are thrown out the exhaust ports.[see video] These meshed particles , once processed become the next generation replicators. The number of replicators only limited by the number of particles released into the digital environment.

The next step in the project was to design a physical interface was related linked to the project. The physical embodiment of the clanking replicator would need to attract attention through a performance to encourage interaction and record its physical interaction remember its location and reenact previous engagements. The performance included a subtle clanking, as a provocative measure to encourage interaction. participants often began touching the flesh like membranes encapsulating the machine. Present yet unremarkable, The robot was attached to its environment through a suction cup, as means of making it quickly assimilating into new environments. The machine records information from its previous engagements then reenacts them in their present environment.