Hello, I am known as K-8 (aka "conscious_object"). Here I keep a fetish blog with a (skewed) sense of humor. Contained herein you will find my various random thoughts on my unique fetishes, and interesting finds culled from all over the intarweb, including art by my friends, and sometimes my own art.

Note: You do not need to have a Livejournal account in order to reply to an entry, as I have "anonymous posting" enabled. Just make sure to sign your name at the bottom, or I'll have no idea which comments are yours.

About a marionette turned into a clockwork robot mannequin.

Warning: also contains evil clowns.

I heard awhile back that Beyonce, of the robot suit concert prop and roboglove, had hired the Thierry Mugler to design the wardrobe for her Sasha Fierce tour. Which is now well underway. So how has that been going?

Some of the results look to be predictably unpredictable. I have no idea what this is all about:



While other parts have been a little more predictably predictable. Because if you're a wealthy star who's also an ASFR-ish and Mugler fan, wouldn't you be tempted to ask to sample the greatest hits?

So for the initial ad campaign, she brings out this old motorcycle top.



And for one of her concert backing films (I assume to allow her time to make costume changes between songs), she naturally uses the opportunity to try on...the suit.


"Who Is Sasha Fierce?" A robot catgirl, it would appear.




(Found by "rotwang.")

Check out this crazy new robot called iCan:



It's actually a person in a suit, standing on a modified Segue. I have no idea how exactly the animated jaw is worked, but it appears to be controlled by the person inside, and looks amazing.

But what I like most about the suit is: guy people think is a robot? With a visor? And a TV in his chest? On wheels? It's ROBODUCK!

The bottom half already looks so close to a dress, I'm just waiting for them to create a female version (please? Pretty please?).

iCan is a Showbot, produced by the same people responsible for Droidz. You might remember the Droidz from the '80s music video "I'm Lonely" by Hollis P. Monroe. Turns out they're still around, with slight modifications made to the suits over the years it seems. It's really hard to find many pictures out there, though, especially of what they apparently look now.

( Evolution )

And here's what they look like now:





For some reason they still have the decorative keypad on the front, a relic from '80s when touch tone was still considered new and hi-tech.

( More Photos )

Edit: Thanks to "rotwang," a few more, and a link to a short video clip:

( Even More Photos )

Could you imagine being wired up to something that controls your facial expressions, and being set on a loop?



This is the latest (and most realistic-looking, so far) android head from Hanson Robotics. Incidentally, his first attempt -- "K-Bot" -- was based on his then girlfriend Kristen, who he met when he walked up to her to say hello, and asked: "can I make you into a robot?" So maybe that really does work as a pick-up line better than you'd think. As long as you're a roboticist, I suppose.

What does the singer being an android have to do with wanting to be a man? Not entirely sure. But upon further investigation, it turns out many listeners miss that she's not singing the phrase out of desire, but out of frustration. She wrote it after a fight with her (now ex-) boyfriend, pondering if maybe she were male, she could understand why he acts the way he does, and he wouldn't misinterpret "99%" of everything she says. Perhaps the android imagery is meant to further the theme of being unable to understand or be understood? Or, maybe it just looks cool.

The cover image carries over into the music video (found by "simonjedi"):

A clip from some episode of American Dad. Apologies to people outside the range of Hulu, this is all I could find.


( A Description, For People Who Can't See The Video )

A goofy '80/'90s musical performance featuring mannequin posing, robotic movements, and interesting outfits. (Found by "Dosman.")

But what I really like about it are the twists in the "story," that come across even without being able to understand what they're saying. ( Further thoughts, but I suggest watching the video first. )

I suppose it's about time for another update...let's see, what do I have... *rummages*

I was alerted by oakenguy to Metropolis by Janelle Monae, an R&B sci-fi concept album in four parts.



The music video shows her in robot form twince for just a very few brief seconds.

This is the first image in what artists Rob Sheridan and Tamar Levine hope will be a series of broken robot girls. There's a short interview here.

Bigbird's V.E.L.C.R.O has continued in my absence. Here is what came before. And here's what's happened since:



( Continue Reading )

Robert Shields is possibly the first person ever to "do the robot," something he developed during his street performer days. He continued this with his partner, becoming the duo Shields And Yarnell.

Shields And Yarnell On The Muppet Show:


A tribute?

Air - "Radio #1":

Aiko-bot is back, this time in a video from CNN.

Beyonce Knowles, who previously opened a performance with a robot-suit prop, has recently been raising eyebrows with a piece of titanium jewelry being nicknamed the "roboglove" by many.



It's a piece she had custom-built based on an idea she had, and has reportedly become her favorite piece of jewelry, wearing it whenever she has a chance.

About a month ago now, "rotwang" sent me a link to this Japanese blog, where someone was posting some interesting photos of some items they'd constructed. I haven't been in much of a posting mood for awhile, so I put off write about it. But about once a week I'd stop by that blog again, and I'd see even more pictures and think "wow, I'm glad I hadn't posted about it yet!"

But I suppose it's time to finally share with you this cool find. At first it was just a few pictures showing somewhere wearing a not-too-uncommon doll mask (though those eyes look really cool), and some really fascinating-looking gloves that make the fingers look jointed:



I believe my exact reaction was "ooo, I want!"

Then I stopped by later, and there were arms to go with it (with a cool wrist joint there), and the beginnings of legs:





And then, suddenly, a full body:


( Read More... )

Here's a find from Rotwang:





It's a suit created for a film called Love Story 2050, which -- if you haven't gathered from the title -- is both a sci-fi movie, and a love story. And also: a Bollywood musical.

The suit maybe isn't as cool as the Philips Razor bot, but pretty impressive for a Bollywood film. And is an interesting design, I think (the little ponytail of wires in the back is cheesy but cute). Though the bot looks most impressive in the few scenes where they're using an animatronic one, which can blink its eyelids and everything:



You can probably tell even from just this one clip that the film is pretty hammy. It might even qualify as "so bad it's good" (I think "don't try, just do or die!" is my new favorite bad movie quote). Not to mention, musical numbers apparently mixed in as well. But the bot is kinda cute. ;-)

I'm not sure if I posted this back when I originally saw it...it's a video clip from the folks at Hypno-Fantastico:



My favorite bit is between 3:00 and 4:00, demonstrating the idea of having a robot personality sort of running in the background. I love the idea of these random robot comments coming out, like "affirmative." every time she's given a command...but still having her regular personality as well, and being like "what is that?"

And then there's the whole prisoner-in-one's-body bit on the couch, hehe.

Those of you who aren't reading this via your LJ Friends page will have already noticed, but I started playing around with the layout a little. I hadn't really looked at what was available for layout options since I first set this up around three years ago, so it was interesting to see how many new options there are.

Oh, and if anyone happens to know the name of the artist who did this robot image (it's not Sorayama), by all means please let me know. *very curious*

A sent to me by lmcdosman, that I couldn't resist captioning:


"Emma, what's wrong?"
"I don't know, my head feels so strange. Sort of...metallic-y."

Hot!









Make-up applications and body-paint? CGI with motion capture? I can't tell for sure.