Survival Research Laboratories -SRL- mechanized dystopian industrial performance art!

SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES (SRL)
Mechanized Dystopian Industrial Performance Art of the Shock and Awe Varieties!

Love this stuff from industrial artist Mark Pauline. Really love this guy! A libertarian minded hardcore kind of dude. One of his dreams is to inspire the sorts of engineers that do DARPA / weapons contractor work to turn from the dark side and into the art side.

The crew uses all manner of salvaged goods... everything from decommissioned military hardware components (including jet aircraft), to everyday household goods (the 8' fluorescent light tube turret cannon kicks ass), to actual organics (animal carcasses, possibly even road kill)!

I really enjoy the titles they craft for their shows. They're long and crafty like the titles for 1900's era "treatises" (written works dealing formally and systematically with a subject), with my kind of gritty unnerving power-words.

Killer show / film titles include:
-A Calculated Forecast of Ultimate Doom: Sickening Episodes of Widespread Devastation Accompanied by Sensations of Pleasurable Excitement
-The Deliberate Evolution of a War Zone: A Parable of Spontaneous Structural Disintegration
- The Unexpected Destruction of Elaborately Engineered Artifacts: A Misguided Adventure in Risk Eradication, Happening Without Known Cause, in Connection with Events that are Not Necessarily Related
-The Arbitrary Calculation of Pathological Amusement
-An Infestation of Peculiar Irregularities: Taking Place in a Disintegrating Landscape, Marked by Unresolved Entanglements
-The Careless Abuse of Premeditated Uncertainty: An Initiation Into The Disastrous Consequences of Manipulating Sudden and Seemingly Unforeseen Events










It was an honor being able to add SRL into my "The Ultimate Dystopian & Post/Apocalyptic Films List (1300+ TITLES!)" thread!

SAVE THE EARTH: Help SRL book a show near you!
www.youtube.com...
www.srl.org...
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Wait, its a film? You added it into your list of films? Or do they simply film some of their performances, to be sold on dvd or shown on youtube? Can you describe an example of a show? Or a portion of one? I'm trying to figure out what this is and what is their message, if any? Just entertainment? A fictional dystopian future scenario? Are there actors? Scripts? Audience participation?

a reply to: 3n19m470

I would have loved to have spent 3 days making a megathread about SRL, but dont have the time, and apparently megathreads are out of fashion in ATS these days.

My Dystopian 'Films' List has been expanded this year:

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
It's best to think of D & PA as film categories, where essentially every other film genre imaginable can be found within this list set. A 'dystopian film' may transcend what movie genre definitions one would normally judge a film by (i.e. a film may be old fashioned, or futuristic, or both, while also being a romance, or a horror, or both). Formats in this list set (now) include animated features, anime, kids cartoons, made for TV movies, cinematic feature presentations, mini-series, TV series, visual novels, and shorts. Likewise, every rating or unrating is within, from family to campy to cult to exploitation.

Dystopian themes generally fall under the basic definition of dystopia: the opposite of utopia. In my view, the 'most realistic' dystopian visions are one that emerged from attempts at 'proper' utopian societies, as we have had emerge in all of our real life human historical utopian societies (that even includes the modern USA). The concept of a dystopia isn't merely an exorcise in fiction, they area study on the very real threats to societies in the real world, and all too often have been reality for millions. My list will generally try to exclude documentaries, docudrama's and based on real story titles (with the exception of some alternative history titles).

Some may confuse futuristic with dystopian, as if they are interchangeable, but they are not (a dystopia could also be in ancient'esque times).

Any story setting can reside within a dystopian atmosphere, construct or larger society. A dystopia could be in the micro-scale scale of the inner space within one individuals mind, or on the macro-scale of an entire galaxy: My list doesn't discriminate.

So, yes the bulk of their 'films' are 'live action' recordings of their events. Although they do have shorts that are all cinematic staged renditions as well.

To try to describe one of their shows I could probably do quite well at, except I wouldn't be able to do it in laymans terms, and not without really making a thing about one specific piece. It'd turn into an whole ordeal of dark letter salad. In regards to their work, they're the salad shooters (as much as I'd love to be able to go on a tour of duty with them for a few good years like many go on PeaceCorps tours).

For those without video streaming tech, it'd be easiest for you to go do an image search. I did include some photos from the events to help instill a jist, but I opted to go more towards the more obscure and every bit as much artful event posters (which I like to think help establish this 'dystopian' precedent I like to think I'm spot on about.

Oh, and there's a bunch of good articles properly delivered out there about SRL, from paid writers and all that good stuff.

PS: My "Dystopian" list also inherently includes the spectrum of "PA" flicks, which means there's a lot of native leniency in trying to deliver 'it all' with that combined scene, although I like to think I've done rather solid in keeping the thread as a whole mostly in tune with proper flicker dystopian art.