Artist of the Week: David Karave

I've been asked many times why I called this site what I did, and until I met David Karave I never really understood how to answer that question. I know feel it has something to do with finding the humor or finding the ability to laugh during difficult times. It is also the ability and the right to laugh at those in charge, and especially those who we have elected to be in charge. David Karave is an artist who is fascinated by the choices that those in charge make and has found very creative ways of displaying his opinion of these choices.

When David sent me an e-mail about his latest project, a robotic display based on the color coding system for terror alerts, I knew I had to have him on Orange Alert. He believes that robotics are the next evolution in art. He melds political statements with artistic interpretations and robotics to create intense visual displays. After spending a few minutes on his site I was overflowing with questions and luckily David was kind enough to answer a few. Above is a video interpretation of David's project he complied especially for this interview.

Orange Alert (OA): How do you balance the artistic value and merit of your work and the political statement it makes? What do you feel the viewer sees?
David Karave (DK): There is really a very fine balance in political art. I want to convey my political message, and yet I'm trying not to fall into the trap of creating art that is telling someone what to think. Since my robotic art speaks of propaganda systems, that would be hypocritical! So I create a story to go with the political message and I let the story stand on its own. It's ironic, because It's almost as if I'm attempting to dilute my own message! But not really, because the story is great too. The mother robotic crash test dummy is dreaming about blood that runs in colors from her broken head. The father crash test dummy is trying to resolve the whole situation, but he's too paranoid. The baby crash test dummy is naive and doesn't care about the news, and so the baby can influence the telnet character (the voice in the TV that interacts with the whole family) because the news has no power over the child robot. So I would say I am trying to use story in order to not be didactic, and really in the end, I want the viewer to take what they feel from the art, not just the protest of the color code alerts.

OA: The color code system itself has always been a joke to me because it is clearly a tool of fear and not a tool of communication. Would you agree and what made you key in on the system?
DK: I totally feel for what you're saying, and I agree. Look, I want to say that I am sure that some high ranking government and law enforcement people could use this information. They could receive a report that is specific, written in colored marker. I understand that our leaders need a system of communication, but why a public system? This color code experiment, on us, on we the people, is a psychological attack. Let's assume that all of the alerts have a real basis in the intelligence community. Let's not even go into about any potential evidence to the contrary. The color code alerts are so vague, they give us no information. We make no changes in our lives, it just makes everyday people more anxious or distressed. We are literally paying taxes to a bully, who is taking our lunch money, and in return what we get is that bully threatening us, and telling us to be afraid. For what? Just be afraid.

The thing that keyed me in to this was color. I'm not a painter, but I do love color. What gives any person the right to associate the beauty of the color spectrum as a reflection of fear? They have no right. Color is beauty. Color is peace! That's why we should never rest. Artists should rise up. Painters should rise up.

OA: The robots you use were dummies loaned to you by a defense contractor. Did he know what they would be used for and has he seen the end result?
DK: Yes and no... They knew that something very experimental would be created. I sent them a DVD of some of my early experiments in robotic art. I have so much gratitude. I mean, I had been searching for two full years for a dummy. No one would loan me one because these are highly sophisticated pieces of equipment, filled with sensors. A used crash test dummy can cost as much as a brand new car. I am so so grateful to the people who helped me. I sent them christmas presents that year!... and I have a feeling that they are happy for the 'Home Automation' project as well (that is the title of the artwork). But to tell the truth, I have not been in touch. They have not contacted me either. I don't want them to be in trouble, because the department of defense is not the department of peace, so I am keeping it on the DL.

OA: Have you receive any negative feedback or worse any government feedback?
DK: There was a festival in Tampa that we called Art Against Fear. A lot of artists who had messages of peace came together and created a two day festival. Well, there was one journalist, actually a head editor at a certain newspaper in Tampa who was obviously upset. He wrote an article and created his own blog that stated that my art should be considered terrorism. He suggested that the defense department should take back the dummies that I "stole" and that artists such as myself should be ordered to Guantanamo bay. I think it may have given us a bigger output of people at the event, but I didn't care about that, I was very upset about what this guy did. I demanded that he take down the blog and article, but he would not. It just amazes me that some journalists can be so against free speech. He didn't understand or pretended to not understand that these were not actual crash test dummies, but modified metal castings of the crash test dummies that I borrowed, moulded, casted, and returned.

As far as what Kurt Cobain said, "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you" ... I feel that. Maybe I'm being watched. They're just going to get more peace than they can handle. Those lackies that are monitoring me will become my biggest fans.

OA: Do you feel videos can accurately capture the scope of this project or does it need to be seen live?
DK: It does not capture the feeling at all. When you have crash test dummies moving crazily with their heads on fire... you can imagine, to a degree. When the crash test dummies are the most paranoid and distressed, (when the alert hits orange! by the way) their heads set on fire. It's all a part of the integrated robotics and pyrotechnics C code programming. As the story goes, the circuits just break in their minds. So when you watch the documentation you don't feel the grinding metal or the heat of the fire. It's definitely something that I have struggled with... capturing the feeling of a live show, on camera. Every time that I have created videos, the dummy family's individual voices have been drowned out by the grinding metal or other music, if I am doing a show with musicians. I think that during a show a person can perceive the dummy characters' voices and the story that is involved, but on video, not so. But I am working on a new video that would have TV production quality and a story in mind.

OA: What's next for David Karave?
DK: I am phasing out of the live performances and moving toward film and video. I think that the live shows are the most intense way to create, but people do enjoy sitting on their couches like lemons, nobody wants to go out most of the time. I want to create art that is more accessible, because I think in the long term it will facilitate more communication of ideas. But I have been talking with the AMOA Museum in Austin, with the idea being an installation or performance. I'm preparing a proposal for them.

I have some background in stop motion as well, so I am thinking how bizarre and cool it would be to really trip out the viewer by shooting some live action humanoid robotics, then switching to stop motion and back again, and back again.

If the color code alerts are repealed I will never have another performance of 'Home Automation'. But if the color code alerts persist, we will persist. The 'Home Automation' project will continue on.

Bonus Questions:
OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be?
DK: I would love to meet the sprit of Tadeusz Kantor. He was an amazing polish theatre director, who worked from the 50's to the 80's in Poland. He often worked underground, forced to hide his performances from the Soviet and Nazi occupiers during those years. His artwork included some inspired experimental acting performances, political art, and the use of sculptures and kinetic art, and puppets on stage. I feel that great art is often created when people have less freedom. It is so easy to neglect what you own. I think that people take for granted their freedom, especially of speech in America. Much of the folk art movement right now in the US is all about googly eyed creatures or retro 80's or animals or psychedelics. I just don't understand that. We are in the middle of two raging wars, and artists are putting their head in the sand, and they are creating non-political art. They are just throwing their hands in the air. I suppose it is their freedom to do so.

OA: What type of music do you listen to and who are a few of your favorites?
DK: I love the Knife - the electro band from Sweden. They have some songs that are very political and yet they work on a level that is so purely musically enlightening, that they are successful in their balance of art and politics. They use weird voice effects, which I love. I like the songs 'the captain' and 'you make me like charity', for the politically fierce lyrical overtones, and yet the music can take you away. Lately I've been listening to Fever Ray, the solo act from the woman who is in the Knife, and another one woman act called Grouper. I've always really loved my bloody valentine, lightning bolt and sonic youth.

For more information on the work of David Karave please visit The robotic art of david karave.