African Robots
AfroBots Exhibition Starling 1.2 was exhibited on the show AfroBots at the Natural History Museum in Kigali in 2016 as part of a collaboration between the Victoria and Albert Museum London and Rwandan National Museums, under the project AfriDesignX (this was one of a few collaborations between African Robots and AfriDesignX). We were honoured to […]
Starling 1.2 is our advanced model Starling 🙂 It was produced with attention to the aesthetics of the piece, incorporating fine wire art by Lewis Kaluzi, and a ‘spacey’ transparent body by Ralph Borland. Ralph designed and constructed the wire inner mechanisms that drive the wings, based on the ‘Scotch Yoke’ linkage system. For the […]
Flapping Bird This mechanical and electronic flapping bird was made by wire artist Lewis Kaluzi on his own initiative, who brought it to show African Robots after hearing about the work we were doing, back in 2015. We took it to London to exhibit it at Machines Room Maker Library. Lewis has worked on many […]
Vitra Design Museum As part of our association with Maker Library Network via our friends at Thingking, we were invited to make a second Starling for their Maker Library Network exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany in 2015. So was born Starling 1.1, which uses a hacked pirate iPod to play back a […]
Starling 1.1, the second starling, pictured here on exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, Germany, as part of a Maker Library exhibition. This starling relies on a hacked pirate iPod playing a recording of a real starling for its call!
Our first African Robots workshop! In late April 2015, African Robots, with a grant from Pro Helvetia’s Ant Funding programme for cross-border collaboration, ran a series of workshops at HIFA2015, the International Festival of the Arts in Harare.
Starling 1.0 Our very first African Robot! In 2013 we made Starling 1.0, depicting a nimble local bird, the Red-Winged Starling, in wire art, with innards composed of Nokia cellphone parts and other cheap electronic components, moving wings, glowing eyes, and a light-responsive call. Wire artists share the same urban spaces as informal cellphone repair […]