New Mechanical Insects

These were made and exhibited during 2010.If you would like to see more of my mechanical insects, please click here

These insect sculptures were inspired by BAA 06-22 (the HI-MEMS project), currently being run by the US government defence departments research and development division, DARPA. This project seeks to combine insects and technology for use in surveillance and warfare.

Osteotome Beetle


Made from:
Spindle tree from mid-Devon
Tagua nut (a sustainable rainforest resource from Ecuador)
Rose gum, an offcut from a building site in New South Wales, Australia
Rimu, building site waste from the West coast of South Island, New Zealand
Holly found in a stream flowing under Lliwedd, a peak by Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). King Arthur and his knights are supposed to sleep there until they rise again, according to legend
Juniper from the Lake District
Boxwood from near Exeter
Yellow Box Gum from a didgeridoo making area at a hostel in New South Wales, Australia
Desert Sheoak (Casuarina) From Erldunda, Northern Territory- in the centre of the Australian Outback
Almond from near Las Negras village, Almeria, Spain
Greenheart from the old Portishead Lock Gates, which have recently been replaced
Apple from a garden at Showell Green Lane, Sparkhill, Birmingham
Cherry from Vordertambergau, a village on the Tamberg mountain in the Austrian Alps
Codeso from Fortalesa on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands
The bone is from a long-disused pig farm at Boiling Wells, which is now part of the St Werburgh’s City farm in Bristol

I imagined these creatures being developed by the military to scavenge calcium-rich lime, so weakening cement and concrete structures. After the cement and concrete is gone, they grind up calcium rich bone instead.

Gramophone weevil

  


Materials used:

Timbers from trees grown and felled at Westonbirt Arboretum. The sculpture is mainly made from Tulip tree (Liriodendron) with inlays and other details made from a variety of other woods from the Arboretum; including spindle, plum, holly, yew, box, oak and also some charred oak from charcoal burning in the Silk Wood. The coloured lines are made from oak sawdust and plum sawdust mixed with two-part epoxy adhesive.
The weevil is standing on a 'vinyl record' made from charcoal dust from the same charcoal burn, ground up and mixed with casting resin. The label of the record is also made from tulip tree wood.


This piece imagines a future time where vinyl records (long since made redundant by technological advances and easily broken) have become rare, delicate and valuable prestige items. Relatively cheap and readily available technologies, such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, mean that owners no longer only just play them on record players, but can also use specially created creatures adapted to play the records.
The gramophone weevil walks around the record at the right speed, picking the sound up through a stylus in its mouthparts and playing it out via the gramophone horn built into its back. These weevils do not eat or breed, so are never distracted from their purpose. They also do not have Latin names, which have become redundant in a world where one-off bespoke creatures can be created by a machine.