Survival Research Laboratories

Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance.[1][2][3] After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California.[4] Since its inception in 1978 SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians and technical creatives dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special-effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. SRL was founded by Mark Pauline in November, 1978. The first show was "Machine Sex" on February 25, 1979. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_Research_Laboratories

http://www.srl.org/

http://cargocollective.com/21cmagazine/Mark-Pauline-The-Art-Of-War