Claire Weber
Robo Cat
Class of: 2029
Major: Photography BFA
Medium: Metal, paper, cardboard, acrylic paint, sculpture
Faculty: Cat Ashley
Prompt: In Multimedia Terrain, students will work to define an aspect of an imagined world using a variety of physical multimedia materials, emphasized by the use of found objects. Incorporating found materials in object making practices can provide authenticity, texture, and a distinct narrative dimension, supporting the overall realism and depth of the created environment.
For Project 0.2 we found objects sustainably and created a new object from that in an entirely new world. I immediately found interest in working with metal cans because of their adaptability, and common appearance in my dorm hall trash cans making them very easy to source from. I was inspired by the series “Love Death and Robots” and the first episode “Three Robots” which is set in a world where robots have taken over the world and roam the empty city, and discover humanistic objects that may mean nothing to them, and everything to a human. This sparked my interest in pets and our relationship to animals as humans. So I decided to investigate how that bond could change when a pet is turned into a man made object. With a few world building specifics like, animals have become scarce due to climate change and extinction, then wiping out common pets like cats and dogs making humans think of material ways to bring them back. I want to spark the question, does the same human value for living pets still exist for a robotic cat? After humans are extinct, does the object have its same meaning? I built up from cardboard and paper mache, layered Yerba mate and other cans with double sided tape, then painted layers of blue enamle, and acrylic paint.