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PoBot Has Your Back - For 25 Cents
PoBot is an art piece that is happy to perform its functions for you. For a fee, of course. It is the creation of artist Nemo Gould.
(PoBot video costs you a quarter ;))
"So, this whole economic recession has been kinda putting the squeeze on independent artists like myself. People have been holding on to what little they have these days and selling sculpture has become an even more uphill struggle."While cruising for junk recently I came across a small oak wine cask and immediately thought of old political cartoons depicting people wearing barrels as a symbol of their poverty. Naturally the thing to do was to make a “self portrait”. Po-Bot will be a coin operated sculpture. He will not perform until he receives a quarter. "
The parts list:
Pneumatic nail gun, drink pitcher, table leg, folding chair parts, oak barrel, desk chair stand, candle sticks, leather belt, equipment case, salad forks, boat motor parts, voltage meter, parking meter coin slot, indicator lights, fence cap, vacuum attachments, springs, motor.
In Philip K. Dick's remarkable 1969 novel Ubik, he introduces the novel concept of everyday items in one's own apartment that cost money to operate. Like the door.
The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."
"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."
...he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
From PoBot via our friends at Frolix_8.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/19/2010)
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