Survival Research Laboratory

I  was fascinated by the work of SRL we saw last class. I love the irony of the name, Survival Research Laboratories. The group creates the elaborate monsters that destroy each other in a mechanical ballet. Why do they deem themselves the Survival Research Laboratory? The creatures they create are violent, scary and exist only to destroy each other. Perhaps they are saying that what they are showing us is our future, and the only way to survive is to adjust our tactics. The machines have a program, but are only somewhat controlled, much like our lives. Our small, seemingly controllable wars, robots, or research may easily get out of our hands. And like the audience and the employees of SRL we might be much closer to danger than we realize. 

SRL puts its audience in eminent danger, and its quite brilliant. They are violent themselves, but in the incredible massacre that is their art, they show us the violence in each of us. I absolutely couldn't look away during their show. When the clip ended, I wanted to see it to the end. This is an apocalyptic mindset that lies within many of us. As disturbing as this is, SRL is forcing us to deal with it directly with their artwork. Are they revealing to us our demise?  All of the people in the audience are willing to risk their lives to see this battle of autonomous robots. What does that say about us? Perhaps we have not evolved much beyond the days of the Colosseum. We still love death and destruction as much as our "primitive" predecessors did. But until recently, we did not have the means to destroy the world eight times over. It may be that these ferocious anarchists at SLR have the best propaganda for the prevention of our self destruction. Isn't that ironic? =)