io9: nemo gould

A Pirate's Life For Robots

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:30:00 PDT

When robots take over pirate ships, all the high seas thievery gets far more efficient. They can swashbuckle recursively and hoist their Jolly Rogers in parallel.

These are some incredible shots of a few of the latest sculptures from retro futurist art maniac Nemo Gould. Specializing in robots and other outlandish creatures, Gould creates all his work from recycled materials gleaned from old mechanical devices, furniture, and knick-knacks.

You can see more of Gould's new work, as well as his back catalog, in his online studio.

Nowhere Fast
Nowhere Fast
Beholder
Beholder
Troglodyte
Troglodyte
Orbit

Every Modern-Day Boogeyman Needs a "Portable Gloom Environment"

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:30:00 PDT

It's hard to socialize when you're a Boogeyman because all you want to do is hide under beds and growl. That's why artist Nemo Gould has created this Portable Gloom Environment.

Boogeyman is one of a new series of kinetic sculptures from robot artist Gould. He builds poignant, playful creatures out of scraps he finds in junkyards and yard sales.

Gould explains:

The Boogeyman is a tragically misunderstood character. Generally hated by the populace he serves, he works long thankless hours under beds and in closets. Just like the rest of us he longs for a little time off to enjoy life. Traditional rest and relaxation has alway eluded him however due to his extreme sensitivity to light and good humor. Fortunately for him, science has caught up with him in the form of a "Portable Gloom Environment". This bulky apparatus may seem cumbersome to you and I, but it for him it is the welcome cost of freedom. So if you should encounter this odd spectacle at the beach, show a little sensitivity to a monster on a well earned vacation. (Yes those are real chicken feet)

Here are a few more of Gould's new sculptures, including the amazing "Praying Mantis" (with gas pump claws) and the migraine machine "Psycho-O-Somatic." There's even a creature made entirely of retro bakelite radios. Click images to see full sizes.

I particularly like Gould's description of the deer sculpture "Re-Animated," which includes a fantasy about reanimating animals by converting them into cyborgs. He writes:

A few years ago I came across something at a yard sale that struck me as particularly foul. It was a mounted deer head with its hoofs arranged to serve as a rifle rack. The cruel irony of killing something and then compelling its corpse to hold the weapon that ended its life really got me. Naturally I bought the awful thing but only now have I been able to do anything with it. Re:Animated represents a major breakthrough in veterinary science. Concerned citizens can now bring in the trophy remains of game animals and have the creatures made whole again. The durable metal chassis is bullet repellant and should diminish the likelihood that these creatures, (when returned to the wild) fall victim to the same fate twice.

You can see all of Gould's sculptures on his website, and see video of all these sculptures in action on his YouTube channel.

A Robot Within a Robot, Swaddled in a Wooden Radio Cabinet

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:00:00 PDT

This astonishing Viking mega-robot, known as Little Big Man, is controlled by another robot nestled in a neon cave within the big Viking's radio cabinet chest. It's one of the latest sculptures by Nemo Gould, whose awesome recycled robot stylings we've raved about before. Gould built Little Big Man for a show about robots at the San Jose Museum of Art. Check out what happens when he moves, plus see some more of Gould's recent work.

And here is another piece called Above It All, which also has the same robot-in-a-robot theme. This time, however, the robot looks more Tripod-esque.

And here are Toad and Deer. One the recurring themes in Gould's work is the merging of humanoid (robotoid?) forms with those of animals — especially deer. This Toad shows off one of Gould's other ongoing obsessions: Robots with teeth.

Here's another robot, named Blink, who is currently on sale. So if you need a new buddy made out of 100% recycled materials, polished up and adorned with blinky lights, Blink may be for you.

You can see more from Gould on his website.

Nemo Gould [artist's website]

Nemo Gould's Retro-Futurist Robot Menagerie

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:30:53 PST

Artist Nemo Gould, whose proud and strangely anatomically-correct robot you see here, loves old-fashioned science fiction, hybrid animals, and junkyards. He just finished an artist-in-residency program at the San Francisco Dump, and has turned out an amazing array of sculptures using recycled debris. Brighten your day with a peek through our gallery of Gould's recent work, plus some exclusive shots inside the artist's mad science studio.

Nemo Gould, ladies and gentlemen and others. I am lucky enough to take walks past his "Goliath" sculpture in San Francisco on a regular basis.