The Mechanoid's Bloodline/Robot Bodies III.

The Mechanoid's Bloodline/Robot Bodies III was an interactive gallery based installation exploring themes of racial metaphor in popular science fiction. It resulted from a body of research that expanded the interrogation of popular science fiction into the fields of postcolonial studies and developing discourses around ‘Afro-futurism'.
The research project began whilst Piper worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, an institution specialising in Robotic research. Piper's examination of the implications of robotics on economies of labour led to a wider exploration of the ‘mechanoid' as a metaphorical presence which could be re-read as symbolic of historical and contemporary notions of racial difference and exploitation. This resulted in the solo presentation of a multi-screen, interactive installation at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Pittsburg in 2001.
As an ongoing research project, this installation went on to be shown at a range of venues worldwide including the Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, USA, (‘Bits and Pieces', November 2001), The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Belgium (‘Transferts' June – September 2003), and was selected by curator Sebastian Lopez for inclusion in the Fifth Shanghai Biennial ‘Techniques of the Visible' (September – November 2004).
An essay by Piper detailing the principal strands of his theoretical research, entitled ‘Notes on The Mechanoid's Bloodline: Looking at Robots, Androids and Cyborgs', was published in the Fall 2001 issue of Art Journal.
Piper's research was also presented to various conferences and symposia internationally. This included papers delivered to ‘Black.Inc', De Balie, Amsterdam 2002; ‘Digital Terror' Cornell University, 2002; ‘The Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Lecture Series' University of California, Irvine 2003, and ‘We are the Robots', FACT, Liverpool, 2003.
Art Journal ISSN 0004-3249,
Transferts ISBN 90-77359-01-X
Shanghai Biennale: Techniques of the Visible ISBN 7-80672-816-3/J.733