Crawling out of Darkness (2014). Dimensions variable. Carbon fiber, aluminum,
brass, stainless steel, motors, electronics, audio. Image courtesy the artist.
DM: Tell us a little bit about your Mobiles and your
idea of making “living” robots.
MM: I build them somewhat as artistic representations of living beings with their own
sounds and ways of behaving, as opposed to
trying to build cutting-edge robots possessing
true intelligence, learning capabilities, etc. But
in spite of the minimal intelligence with which
they’re imbued and the very few abilities I’m
able to give them, they take on a living presence
very quickly, complete with a sense of personality and mood. I liken it to a painted portrait
of a person that is so convincing the subject
comes to life in your mind as you experience it.
Somehow they end up being like my offspring.
It starts as an artistic conjuring rather than a
scientific reality, and it’s almost a stretch to call
them robots, as robotics has become such an
extremely sophisticated technical pursuit.
DM: You went from traditional sculpture to computer animation, then ultimately took elements from
both worlds and merged them together into what you
do now. What led you to take this path?
MM: By the end of grad school I’d done years
of work in clay, the most tactile of materi-
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als. Wanting to do something differenent, but
equally difficult, I abandoned clay to work with
styrofoam, which has neither the physical pleasures nor limitations of clay. Styrofoam’s about
as close as you can get to a non-material. These
were hanging pieces, and I could hold a sevenfoot figure over my head and rotate it around to
view it from different angles. Like you can now
do in a computer.
After grad school and getting married, it occurred to me that a career in sculpture might
not provide the base we needed to buy a house,
raise kids, get them through college, etc. I
taught myself computer graphics in the late
’80s, when the term “computer animation” was
generally unknown, actually imagining I’d get
into industrial design, but hooked up with a
fledgling animation company instead. I soon became Creative Director and later President and
GM of Xaos Inc., hiring new MFAs and showing them the ropes. We did a lot of very creative
work; I won dozens of national and international awards including Emmys and a Silver at Ars
Electronica.
I knew from the start I was selling off my
creative soul to make ends meet, and eventually
SciArt in Ame