Giant Robotic Spider To Destroy Liverpool
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 5 of September , 2008 at 3:34 am
Yesterday commuters arrived at Lime Street to find a gigantic mechanical spider clinging to a derelict building next to the station. A group of French specialist researchers announced that they had been observing the creature, apparently made of steel and wood and a thousand times the size of anything in nature, for weeks. It appears to be female, around 13m tall, and has been dubbed ‘La Princesse’ by the team. The scientists believe the creature may be about to hibernate, and are attempting to prevent it falling into an inert state, as they are concerned at the potentially catastrophic results of the spider laying up to 1000 eggs. Scientists have therefore removed the spider from the building and taken it to a research base established at the ACC, at Albert Dock in Liverpool. On Friday 5th September it is expected that they will attempt to wake it, under controlled conditions, at 11:30am.
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. More after the jump.
Okay, I guess you don’t have to be that afraid, since the spider is nothing more (and nothing less) than a gigantic piece of art commissioned from the French company La Machine for Liverpool’s 2008 Capital of Culture celebration.
The robot itself is a serious piece of machinery. It’s 50 feet high and weighs 37 tons, with 50 (five zero) hydraulic axes of movement that power it along at 2 mph. It took a year to build from steel and reclaimed poplar. As if that weren’t enough, it’s got seven different types of built-in special effects: lights, sounds, water, wind, smoke, flame, and snow (!).
The spider is scheduled to start wandering around Liverpool Friday afternoon, with the most spectacular performance taking place in the Salthouse dock (wherever that is) Friday evening and other events going on through Sunday night. We’ll keep you updated; if anyone in the area wants to send in pics or video (anyone? anyone?) I’d love to post them.
[ La Machine ] VIA [ Suicide Bots ]
Leave a comment
Category: Art
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
No comments yet.