Wrecks
Wrecks was the first attempt at making a sculpture that walked. He was created the first year I was at the Mutoid yard in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1996.
Not having much cash and quite limited tools and work space…an arc welder, angle grinders and a drill working without a workbench, only the floor, he was created in less than a month working on him usually in the night when it was cooler. Some of the materials were blagged from other inhabitants on the yard, the Citroen 2CV from which the engine was removed was bought for 35,000 lire…I think that’s about £15 at the time.
The idea for the type of mechanism was based on plastic windup toys called Zoids. They where small 10cm long walking models of Mechs from a Japanese cartoon series pre dating transformers. They had no steering, they simply walked or wobbled forward shifting their weight from one side to the other as the legs moved back and forth in phase and synchronized to each other.
Worked quite well on a toy of a few grams, different story on a machine of a few hundred kilos but the effect was there and it’s imperfections became it’s character.
