OmniCircus Junkyard Cabaret

This Project was submitted to Parallax by Frank Garvey.

OmniCircus Junkyard Cabaret and Robot Ensemble is an experimental musical-cabaret group, led since its founding in 1988 by composer-artist Frank Garvey. Our live shows integrate avant-fusion music and performance with life-sized computer-controlled robotics and midi-controlled virtual- reality (VRpit) performers. The OmniCircus performance space has a permanent installation of art, music, animation and robotics, available for viewing most Saturdays noon - 4pm and by appointment. Go to http://www.omnicircus.com for more info.

The Robotic Ensemble of the OmniCircus is a surreal mechanical red-light district, a troupe of mechanical beggars, hookers, junkies and street-preachers who appear in OmniCircus robotic cabaret shows as 'actors', and in their 'free' time often engage in mysterious cyborg guerilla theater on the city streets.

Goboy (left), the robotic panhandler, was unleashed in 1994 on places of institutional and cultural power such as museums, opera houses and shopping malls, and the astonishing results were videotaped. The video records of the notorious unannounced public visits of OmniCircus robots are becoming legendary comic critiques of our twisted times, and a DVD of these often hilarious, always disturbing interactions is available on our website.

Goboy was an 'early adaptor' of the Parallax Basic Stamp 1, in 1993.The stamp is used to trigger small digital reed-relay chips, which in turn actuate pneumatic solenoid valves, driving the movements of the figurative elements of this sculpture. We are in the process of upgrading Goboy to a Basic Stamp 2 and adding sensor input to trigger voice, lighting, and other effects.

Goboy's companions - including Plowgirl (above) the mechanical junkie and Godfella the robot street-preacher - also use Basic Stamps to control mechanical devices such as pneumatic valves, servos and DC motors.