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Geoffrey has exhibited in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Singapore, Denmark, New York, and London. He has shown work at the National Gallery of Australia, The Singapore Art Museum, and The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. His public commissions include the eleven-metre-tall robotic sculpture Totem at the Perth Arena, the cosmic ray-activated automaton Readwrite at the NEXTDC Data Centre, and the interactive light sculpture Surface at the Perth Children's Hospital.
"My background in Computer Science informs on ongoing project to create automata - interactive, self-determined, expressive machines - that test distinctions between person and artefact. I seek to create works that are able to support unique, emergent, ongoing, dialogues between viewer and art object."
"I am fascinated by robot mythologies - popular stories about 'made beings' such as Pinnochio, Coppelia, and Frankenstein. My work crystallises from these mythic possibilities to create technological agents that are behaviourally free, deeply connected, and that dwell here, among us."
"In many of my works I include a reflective element - a mirror. This inclusion is deliberate, as I see every created being as a kind of mirror. The implication is that the relationship between creator and created is ultimately reciprocal. Via the precession of simulacra our creations reveal in us aspects of an 'inverse Pinocchio' – the real boy who wishes he was wooden."
For more explanation see Geoffrey Drake-Brockman's TEDx Talk Created Beings or CNN's Great Big Story video Art of the Future in the right hand panel, or Geoffrey's paper: Created Beings: From Commonplace Motifs to Robot Myths and Simulacra presented at the Cyberworlds 2015 interdisciplinary conference on cybernetic realities.
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SKY is an interactive
installation that draws inspiration from the
billowing white clouds and spans of
sapphire-clear atmosphere that make up the
Earth's sky. The work consists of 32 elements,
set out in a 20m-wide grid. Each element has a
air-jet that, when activated, inflates a
5m-tall vertical fabric plume which ascends and
surges with pulsations of pressure and
swirling motion. Half of the fabric plumes are
sky-blue, and half are cloud-white. SKY
has eight microwave sensors that detect
passing pedestrians and a computer that
composes choreographic responses to human
movement.
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Parallax
Dancer is an augmented reality
installation based on a synthesis of ballet;
3D -animation; real-time control software; and
machine vision. The work is based on a 3D laser
scan Jayne Smeulders of the West Australian
Ballet. Scanning
and 3D animation is by Phil Dench of
Headus.
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Surface is an
installation of over 2,000 ceiling-mounted LED
pixel tubes; it is some 10m by 5m in overall
size. The work is an interactive light pond.
When pedestrian movement is detected via one
of four sensors a virtual stone is thrown into
the light pond - causing ripples to travel out
over the virtual water surface. Multiple
ripples can disturb the surface - resulting in
a complex interplay of interference patterns.
Surface is permanently installed in
the central lobby of the Perth Children's
Hospital.
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Portal
Series, 2016 - Lacquer on
stainless steel The Portal Series is a
sequence of twelve geometric
painted/reflective artworks, all 100 x 100 x 7
cm in size. The works are wall-mounted and are
3D relief paintings - with negative interventions
into the picture plane and references
to trompe l'oeil and op art. The series consists of three
different geometries: Circular, Square, and
Triangular, each of these in turn having four
variants.
The variants differ systematically in their
colour composition and the width of the reflective margin around the
repeated geometric elements. .
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Luminous,
2015 - LED Lights,
Electronics,
Aluminium Luminous is an
interactive light sculpture in five parts,
each of which consists of a 2m wide spherical
form mounted on an 8m pole. The spherical
structures are made from folded aluminium webs
in a honeycomb arrangement that is evocative of traditional
Chinese paper lanterns. At the core of each
sphere is a set of 12 LED meteor tubes, which
in turn contain a string of
individually-addressable full-colour pixels.
Motion detectors on each pole provide stimulus
to a control program running on a
microcontroller - which calculates colour-wave
responses to human movement. “My reference was
the movie Blade Runner and its
futuristic Chinatown world, where overhead
advertising blimps invite people to live
off-world,... my overhead spheres are also
invitations to come and live on different
planets.” The work is illuminated nightly from
6pm and is permanently installed at Chinatown
in Northbridge, Western Australia.
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Interlace,
2015 -
Laminar Fountains, Electronics, Stainless
Steel Interlace is an
interactive water sculpture using eight
laminar flow fountains and four microwave
motion detectors. The work responds to the
presence of people with arcing overhead jets
of illuminated water. When pedestrians walk
under the jets they become “piggies” in an
ongoing game of “piggy in the middle” played
by the sculpture. An embedded computer
controls the operation of the laminar flow
fountains - it has the aim of
"weaving-in" its audience into an interlaced
composition." The work is permanently
installed at Central Walk, Joondalup, Western
Australia.
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Solar Jayne is a
"spin-off" from The
Coppelia Project. She is a
life-size ballerina modelled after Jayne
Smeulders of the West Australian Ballet. The
body is made out of cast marble to withstand
the elements and the mechanism draws power
from the sun. Solar energy allows Jayne to
pirouette, while she "spots" with her head.
You need to press her buttons to make her go.
If you press the "right" button she goes
'round and 'round, if you press the "wrong"
button she just shakes her head.
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Rain on
Water, 2014 - Aluminium, Lacquer This work is based on the
action of ripples from raindrops
propagating across a still water surface.
The work is a relief sculpture frieze that
runs the full 40m width of the central
concourse of Butler Train Station. It is
made up of a regular grid of some 1,200
anodised aluminium rods mounted on a
reflective surface. Each rod is topped
with a brightly coloured square end-cap.
The length of each rod and the colour of
its cap are calculated according to a wave
propagation and interference algorithm
written for the project.
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Readwrite is located on
the the NEXTDC Data Centre in Malaga, Western
Australia. It is a robotic artwork 10m in
length, with 24 pneumatically actuated
rotating elements. Motion sequences on
Readwrite are triggered by charged
"Muon" particles. Muons are terrestrial Cosmic
Rays generated in the upper atmosphere by
interactions with high-energy particles which
originate from distant supernovae and
supermassive black holes in active galactic
nuclei. Readwrite has four Muon
detectors - with one at each corner of the
work. When a Cosmic Ray is detected, a wave
motion sequence begins from that corner.
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The
Coppelia Project involves the
creation of a troupe of four robot ballerinas
able to learn and perform ballet dance
movements and interact with an audience. The
Coppelia Project is inspired by the
story about a clockwork girl from the ballet
"Coppelia" by Delibes, based on a story by
Hoffmann. The robots' form is based
on Jayne Smeulders of the West
Australian Ballet.
The first robot ballerina of The Coppelia Project; Coppelia Doll One - is formally named "Lilas Juliana Areias". |
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Totem is
an interactive spatial robot some 11m in
height. It has 108 reconfigurable petals and
is able to react to pedestrian movement. Totem
incorporates a laser projection artwork titled
"Translight" that projects nightly onto the
Eastern wall of the Perth Arena. Totem /
Translight is a permanent public art
commission installed at the Perth Arena. Totem
has been nicknamed "The Pineapple" by the
people of Perth.
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Spiral,
2012 - 2012, Granite,
Stainless Steel |
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Floribots
is an interactive installation consisting of
128 robot origami flowers with "hive mind”
characteristics. It is capable of sensing
audience movement and adapting its behaviour
accordingly. Winner of the Peoples Choice
Award, National Sculpture Prize 2005. Also
exhibited at Perth Institute of Contemporary
Art 2007, and Singapore Art Museum 2010.
"Floribots presents as a social organism,
simulating behaviours that are those of both
an individual and a colony. By way of some
complex feedback cybernetics, a number of
absorbing social realities arise in the
interaction that an audience is able to
experience with the work." - from catalogue
essay by Dr Benjamin Joel.
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Headspace
is a matrix of 256 motorised rods. Each
rod is able to extrude some 40cm. It is an
interactive kinetic sculpture with four motion
detectors able to detect human presence. It is
permanently installed at Christ Church Grammar
School, in Perth, Western Australia. It was
commissioned to commemorated the 100th year of
the school. The system is loaded with 3D scan
data based on the faces of over 700
schoolchildren, the rod matrix is able to
assume these face-like forms as well as morph
between them and perform geometric
transitions.
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Counter
was first installed near the entrance to
the Perth Underground Train Station. Since
then it has counted on the beach at Cottesloe,
Western Australia, and at Aarhus, in Denmark.
Counter is a solar-powered interactive
installation that counts each pedestrian that
walks though its archway. It is capable of
counting up to one less than a billion, after
which it will clock-over and go back to zero.
The concept for Counter arises from
the imperative to “be counted” or “make sure
you count” that is part of liberal democratic
cultural heritage. In addition, the work
carries overtones of surveillance and
scientific measurement.
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Clockwork Jayne is a
life-sized ballerina figure mounted on a faceted
mirror base. When its clockwork mechanism is
wound up, the ballerina pivots slowly and a tune
plays quietly until the spring winds down. The
work draws on childhood memories of little
clockwork music boxes, with ballerinas that
popped up and rotated in front of a mirror when
you open the lid. Clockwork Jayne was exhibited
at the Holmes a'Court Gallery in Perth, Western
Australia. Clockwork Jayne was
produced with assistance from the West
Australian Ballet and its principal dancer,
Jayne Smeulders.
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Optobot is an
interactive optical wall panel incorporating
four motion detectors and some 3,000 RGB LED
lights mounted behind two perforated
machine-turned stainless steel sheets. The LEDs
shine light onto a printed, coloured,
tessellated pattern to create colour changes by
additive and subtractive mixing of colour. The
system uses an embedded microcontroller to
create multiple overlapping "waves in
colourspace" that propagate across the work.
Optobot is permanently installed at Automotive
TAFE in Kwinana, Western Australia.
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Autobot, 2008,
Robotics, Electronics, Microprocessor,
Aluminium, Automotive Components Autobot is an interactive
ceiling-mounted robotic artwork incorporating
four motion detectors and 31 electric
motors. The system uses an embedded
microcontroller to create waves and
transformations that propagate across the work
then gradually diminish. Autobot is
permanently installed at Automotive TAFE in
Kwinana, Western Australia.
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Optic Alley,
2008,
Dimensions Variable, Lasers, Servo
Motors, Microprocessor, Electronics |
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Anemone,
2005, 350 x 200 x 200 cm Robotics, Aluminium,
Lycra Anemone
is an interactive robotic sculpture.
Anemone means "wind flower", but anemones are
actually marine animals.
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Transfiction,
2005,
120m Wide Laser Projection |
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Essentialiser,
2002/2003,
Lasers, Video Interactive Installation Essentialiser is an
interactive appliance incorporating 60 small
industrial red lasers, installed along three
axial mounts. Audience members are able to pass
through a door and enter the space where the 60
beams trace lines onto their bodies. The
projected lines are picked up via an infra-red
video camera and displayed, on a feedback
monitor inside Essentialiser, as well as
on a large outside monitor, for the gallery
audience to see. Collaboration with Richie
Kuhaupt. Exhibited at the Perth Institute of
Contemporary Art and at Collaborative Concepts
Gallery in Beacon, New York USA. Reviewed by
Benjamin Genocchio, New
York Times Arts Review, 28 Dec 2003.
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LaserWrap, 2004, Dimensions
Variable, Laser Projection Installation |
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Torso, 2004, 185 x
120 x 40 cm, Stainless Steel, Cast Marble |
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Neural Network, 2003, 60 x 120 x 20 cm, Electroformed Copper, Chromium, Fibregless Neural Network consists
of 18 nodes, regularly distributed over a
mirror-reflective matrix-form. As the viewer
changes orientation the nodes appear to
intermittently make and break connections with
adjacent nodes. Chrome surface produced by
electrofoming over fibreglass. Winner, Princess
Margaret Search for Genius Award.
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Bubblesort,
2002, 170 x 80 x 50 cm, Aluminium, Copper,
Chromium, Auto Lacquer Bubblesort is
a famous software sorting algorithm. This
sculpture actualises the virtual bubblesort
construct and credits it with agency and
interactive potential. Exhibited Sculpture by
the Sea, Bondi and Cottesloe.
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Pangenesis,
Jacobs Ladder, 2000,2002 Jacobs Ladder is the
ladder leading to heaven as seen by Jacob in his
dream; alternatively, it is a device for
generating a series of high voltage plasma arcs
that ascend between twin diverging conductors
before dissipating into the atmosphere.
Exhibited at the Perth Institute of Contemporary
Art. |
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Lasercube, 2002, Dimensions
Variable, Lasers |
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Chromeskin,
2001, 185 x 120 x 40 cm, Electroformed Copper,
Chromium, Fibreglass Chromeskin
is the result of a three year
collaborative project between Geoffrey
Drake-Brockman and Richie Kuhaupt. Chromeskin
was a finalist in the 2001 inaugural
National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition, and
was on exhibition at the National Gallery of
Australia in Canberra from November 30 2001 to
March 10 2002. The work was awarded Highly
Commended, by the National Sculpture
Prize judges.
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Quadrascope,
2001, 230 x 110 x 110 cm, Plasma Displays,
Computer Hardware and Software |
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Emission,
2001, 120 x
140 x 100 cm, Cast and Fabricated Aluminium,
Auto Lacquer Emission
is an exported cyberterritorian. Here
crystallised is the cyborg intermarriage of
amorphous, sticky, organic potentials, wetly
embracing the rigour of regularly expressed
delineated systems. Emission is a
denizen of the digital realm that has been
swept from its native virtual context into the
world of mundane tangibility and deposited
here on the shores of our reality.
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Geoffrey, 2001, Dimensions
Variable, Acrylic Paint, Fibreglass Figure,
Laser The key process of the
Geoffrey artwork is a single-point ocular
gridding of the installation space. An ideal
perceptual chequerboard that is suggestive of
networked and delineating technologies, as well
as linear and ordered mental systems. In a
sense, Geoffrey depicts a sensorium, an
inner space or Cartesian theatre where mental
processes are played out. In here, Geoffrey
is both actor and audience, caught in the
cycle of his own awareness. Geoffrey:
information technologist,
man-who-would-be-robot, logician. Under the
perfect ordering principle Geoffrey is rendered
monodimentional. Geoffrey was created in
collaboration with Richie Kuhaupt.
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Erasorhead,
Maria, 1997, 90 x 90 cm, Oil and Auto
Lacquer on Stainless Steel Maria was the robot/girl
heroine of the 1910 Fritz Lang film masterpiece
"Metropolis".
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Phasespace Tunneller,
1997 Phasespace is a mathematical
abstraction - an infinite-dimensional space in
which each point fully specifies the total
spacetime of an alternate universe. Phasespace
encompasses all possible universes - by
extrapolation, phasespace hints at the potential
embryonic in 'cyberspace'.
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