Survival Research Laboratories
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Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an industrial machine performance art group founded by Mark Pauline in November, 1978. Through late 2006, SRL has conducted 48 shows throughout the world, mostly in the Western United States.
SRL shows are essentially performance art installations acted out by machines rather than people. The interactions between the machines are usually noisy, violent, and destructive. A frequent tag-line on SRL literature is "Producing the most dangerous shows on Earth". A side effect of the group's activities is frequent interactions with governmental and legal authorities.
Early performances featured animal skins and cadavers animated by mechanical endoskeletons while more recent performances feature some large and technically advanced robots that reflect a paranoid militaristic imagination. In the SRL workshop, a high value is placed on found or re-purposed materials and machines. An example is the The Big Arm which is a telemetrically controlled robot made from an abandoned back-hoe which drags itself around by its "arm".
SRL devices are usually given interesting names, such as the Flame Hurricane, the Large Shock Wave Cannon and the Hand o God. Their performances are also given colorful names, such as The Unexpected Destruction of Elaborately Engineered Artifacts and Survival Research Laboratories Contemplates A Million Inconsiderate Experiments.
SRL is considered to be the pioneer of industrial performing arts.[citation needed] Many SRL members are also involved in other avant garde artistic projects such as the Cacophony Society, the Suicide Club, Robochrist Industries, People Haters, Burning Man and robotics projects like Battlebots and Robot Wars.
