Aparna Rao and Soren Pors are two artists who, by working together, cultivate high-tech, innovative and interactive artworks that have expanded the realms of contemporary art through their ‘creatures’. By removing the boundary between artwork and creature, Rao and Pors allow their audience to interact with the artworks, evoking emotional responses, humour and giving the artwork a behaviour of its own. Motivated by their desire to build the creatures envisaged in their minds, Rao and Pors obsess over these ‘creatures’ they create, leading to a journey of discovery for both the artist and viewer.
Rao’s and Pors’ paths crossed in 2005 when they joined forces in Italy, while studying for their Masters degrees at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. As they found their interests were similar they began working together, producing a greater quality of work in a shorter amount of time. However, both artists admit to not loving technology. Although their artworks appear to have heavy technological input, neither artist has an engineering background, thus they collaborate with robotics scientists to mentor them to formulate the creatures in their heads. Overcoming these technological difficulties results in original artworks, as seen in the duo’s exhibition ‘Applied Friction’.
Drifter is an inverted stick figure man in a hat who drunkenly sways about his central axis as a person enters the room, captivating the audience by suddenly falling to the floor. Before impact the sculpture is programmed to begin to rise again, avoiding damage. The helplessness of the sculpture falling instils a notion of fear in the audience. Drifter is indeed a creature, as intended by the artists, and due to his birth through technology he transcends previous artistic boundaries of medium... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Drifter, 2008-11. Fiberglass, nylon, metal, electro-mechanical components, 180 x 91 x 45cm.
Pygmies, 2006-09. Plastic, metal, wood, electro-mechanical components, 360 x 500 x 435cm. Images courtesy the artists.
