Robotic Art: France Cadet

During her residency, Ms Cadet constructed a multi-robot installation called ‘Dog(Lab)02’, a follow-up to a highly successful prize-winning installation entitled Dog (Lab)01 which attracted international acclaim.

For Dog(Lab)01 Ms Cadet created a series of different robotic animals by hacking some popular cyber-toys. Each robotic animal was a chimera – a combination of several animals. For example, the ‘Dolly’ robot was half dog, 30% ewe, 15% cow, and 5% sheep. As the name suggests, Ms Cadet's robots raise questions about the opportunities and dangers presented by contemporary experiments in biotechnology such as cloning. In 1996, scientists announced that they had successfully cloned the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly. The real Dolly lived a normal life, but Ms Cadet's robotic version was programmed to manifest the symptoms of “mad cow disease” (BSE), which reminds us that scientific optimism about the potential benefits of biotechnology need to be tempered with caution about the potential dangers.

For Dog(Lab)02, Ms Cadet made a whole pack of robotic cow-dogs that will appear to suffer from BSE in unison. By using a whole pack of robotic dogs, the aim was to create a much more frightening impression than was possible with the single dog of Dog(Lab)01, which often inspired amusement – something she did not intend.

The project started on 26 September 2005 and ran for eight months.  We exhibited the installation in Bristol in May 2006.

Within a few days of the project starting, it was already causing a stir - as you can see from this BBC news story.