THE BOTS

THE BOTS! According to a recent survey 47% of present day jobs won’t exist in the very near future. Japanese Sushi waiters, Hungarian open heart surgeons, even ballboys at Wimbledon, the evergrowing redundancy list is endless. The sad truth is that, very soon we won’t need these folks anymore, Robotic Extra Humans can do their jobs quicker and better, don’t take toilet breaks or go on holiday for a fortnight to Benidorm. They say that the factory of the future will have two things – a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog and the dog is there to stop the man touching the machines! Exciting or scary? A dream come true or a dystopian nightmare scenario worthy of an Orwell or Bradbury novel? It would be presumptious of us to venture an opinion! But don’t get the idea that these new, state of the art, differently normal Cyberbots are just inanimate, chunks of carbon fibre and microchips. Oh no, these non binary, gender fluid lads and ladettes have just as many mixed up feelings as the most petulant teenager, frequent emotional crisis worthy of many menopausal meltdowns and totally dysfunctional families just like all the rest of us. Kind of comforting to know. “THE BOTS!” is a multi media photographic body of work rigorously following the M. S. U. school of thought (inspired by artists such as Jean Michel Basquiat, Roger Ballen, David Carson and Wong Kar-Wei) which seeks to show the “humane side” of these hard working uber citizens (he/she/it). The ecstatic joy and emotional turmoil in their flesh toned little bot faces. Folks like mother of 12, Mavis Clutterfck, chicken strangler by day, exotic karaoke performer in a seedy gin joint by night. In only a few hours Mavis runs through the entire gamut of fully programmable, digital emotions from utter disgust to pure unbridled ecstacy. This unique body of work strives to communicate the regionally accented, voice controlled, touch screen, eco friendly, bio plant based, fully sustainable connect-disconnect between the zeitgeist of the NOW NORMAL and the tantalizingly near future of the NEW DIFFERENTLY NORMAL. These beautifully hand crafted by computer images show the recent past and very soon to be forward thinking optics of modern day communications – demonstrating IN COLOUR, the amalgam and flux of terrabytes of tech and cyber sweat needed to send a fuzzy, out of focus photo of your chicken ruby across the globe to your Nan in Scunthorpe. It’s the future, do not resist! All of these unique “THE BOTS!” images are available to own as top quality, Giclee prints on museum grade, Hahnemuhle etching paper, framed or unframed. Images are supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

PORTFOLIO REVIEW (excerpt) of "THE BOTS" by Lensculture

You have some very strong work in your submission. There’s an exciting grittiness present in many of your pictures that speaks to a future that is already somewhat decrepit, worn and in need of service. The sense of the passage of time and a general deterioration is very much aligned with the anthropomorphic association of robots and automatons. Indeed, while such objects or beings are generally characterized as precise, regimented and accurate, there is a degree of frailty that at times creeps into your images. All of this results in a rather delightful degree of tension that reinforces your concept.