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Kal Spelletich ( ) is an American contemporary artist. A pioneer of San Francisco's machine art scene, he hand builds complex machines and robots. Current work, in 2018, includes building functional artificial robotic organs as a residence of the Stochastic Labs in Berkeley California. Through a collaboration with audience members who volunteer to control or operate his sculptures, Spelletich's work explores the interface of robots and humans. Early work frequently incorporated fire and "extremely dangerous" situations, to examine the boundaries of fear, control and exhilaration. By the late 1990s Spelletich started incorporating sensors in his sculptures to engage with questions about technology, spirituality, and play.
Early life and education
Spelletich grew up in
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...
, where his parents owned a construction company. The seventh of nine children, he was given a chemistry set at nine, and began to experiment with fire and alchemy. At 18, he joined the
International Harvester
The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...
tractor assembly line and as a member of the
United Auto Workers Union
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...
, he was exposed to mass production and large scale building processes.
Spelletich attended the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
. He studied photography and graduated with a BFA in interdisciplinary art. He earned an MFA from the
University of Texas, Austin. He helped to start the Austin Media Arts Center after he received his master's degree.
Career
Spelletich is considered a pioneer of San Francisco's machine-art scene. Spelletich builds interactive robots and brain machine interfaces using technology currently at the forefront of scientific research for medical, militaristic or consumer applications.
Spelletich explores emotional boundaries related to risk and play. His work is interactive, requiring participants to enter or operate the piece, often against their instincts of self-preservation. The collaboration with the audience completes the work. His work often includes elements of fear, play, humor and absurdity
such as a hugging machine, robots that grab and lift the participants in the air, harvest and respond to bio data and praying robots.
Brain machine interface work began in 2016 and includes Split Brain Robotics (collaboration with
Mitch Altman
Mitch Altman (born December 22, 1956) is a Berlin-based hacker and inventor, best known for inventing TV-B-Gone, as featured speaker at hacker conferences, as international expert on the hackerspace movement, and for teaching introductory electr ...
) which incorporates a hacked EEG as a neural interface and a computer to analyze the data and signal the robots responses.
In September, 2016, Amazon Video greenlit a pilot
Budding Prospects that is based on the life of Kal Spelletich in the 1980s.
Early work
In 1989 Spelletich founded the interactive machine art performance collective Seemen (stylized SEEMEN) — in the 1991
Richard Linklater
Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies '' ...
film ''
Slacker,'' Spelletich played a character who wore a backpack of television sets, similar to the TV backpacks the Seemen wore in their "often-jarring" performances.
He was involved in Austin's music scene, and collaborated with bands including the
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been ...
and
Scratch Acid
Scratch Acid was an Austin, Texas noise rock group formed in 1982. One of the pioneers of noise rock in the 1980s, the band is best remembered as a stepping stone for its front man David Yow, and bass player David Wm. Sims, both later of The Jesu ...
. In August 1999, ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' wrote that Spelletich's work was influenced by American
punk rock and informed by his "homegrown mechanical expertise" and his "art school exposure to
Dadaists and
Duchamp."
With Seemen, he constructed "notorious" installations at the
Burning Man
Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...
festival such as the three headed hound ''Cerebus'', an animated fire spewing sculpture made of metal.
In 2001, Spelletich began to build pieces that incorporated biofeedback sensors. ''The Levitator'' lifted a volunteer based on a device that measured respiration; another piece used breath analysis to connect a turbine jet engine with an afterburner. The installation ''The EKG Ring'' monitored volunteers sitting in the center of a ring of fire, with the fire pulsing in time with their heartbeats. In 2006, he constructed "Monkey on Your Back", a backpack robot with multiple arms and EKG sensors that responded to changes in a participant's heart rate.
Further reading
*
Boas, Natasha. (2015) “Poetic Kinetics or Intentional Imperfection,” ''SFAQ'', March 26.
*Kino, Carol. (2014) “Artists on Artists: Chris Johanson on the Apocalyptic Machines of Kal Spelletich,” ''T: The New York Times Style Magazine'', August 16.
References
External links
Kal Spelletich's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spelletich, Kal
1960 births
Living people
People from Davenport, Iowa
University of Iowa alumni
University of Texas at Austin alumni
American new media artists
Robotic art
Artists from Iowa