La Princess - A Giant Spider in Liverpool

As part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture La Machine and Artichoke created a giant robotic spider mounted on a crane. They named it La Princess and she certainly surprised us!

The whole thing is a performance art piece, seen over 3 days (September 5th, 6th, and 7th). This particular stroll through the Albert Docks took place on the evening of Friday, September 5th. Although it's not seen in this movie, the reason La Princess is at the docks is to take a bath.

It was raining/drizzling for the majority of Friday evening, hence you will occasionally see part of my left hand in upper left corner. I was feebly attempting to keep the camera dry.

This was shot using Sony Digital Handycam, model DCR-TRV14E. All sound and footage were captured with the camera.

EDIT: Artichoke and La Machine are not connected - Artichoke is a company unto itself.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• La
• Princess
• Giant
• Robotic
• Spider
• Liverpool
• Albert
• Dock
• Capital
• of
• Culture
• Machine
• Artichoke

[LilyKitx]

So with all the poverty in the world, we could help so much and you build a giant spider. I can't say anymore than that

[ingottoe]

@LilyKitx Perhaps lost in the debate over the value of art and creative work is that it has value AND there are people paid to plan, build, provide the materials to build, and run an installation like this. Given that the vast majority of the funds had already been set aside by the city of Liverpool to support the arts (specifically, says wiki, 1.5M of the 1.8-.9M used to build this) what would you recommend have been done instead? From a US perspective, the UK has a robust social safety net.

[pietzeekoe]

gay that ist not supported by its own legs

[ingottoe]

@pietzeekoe I hear you (though I'm not such a fan of that form of expressing disappointment) - It would have been truly amazing if it were capable of supporting itself and moving about so quickly, but I don't think we are at that level of materials science and robotics yet. Or, if we are, the materials able to support such weight and programing to move with such balance and grace would come at a very large price tag, one Liverpool would not have been willing to support.

[mastervaderm16]

that looks cool

[BiscuitDegaro]

No. Hell no. That is freaking cool but just....no. 

[slats22]

Absolutely lovely....absolutely!!!!!!!!

[huatonelson]

This is really cool. I love projects like these, that both work off of and expand the imagination. Does anyone know why the band is broken up onto those different lifts instead of just all being on one big flatbed?

[Necrodius]

Cool

[KiriouSs]

oooh lol i thought it can mmove by itself.. yea ofcourse it cant iu mean it could hurt some ppl that way lol

[KiriouSs]

wow.. simehow reminds me of that movie wid wild west this is perfect... its tottally worthr the money whever sposore it or whatever becouse its really cool and something new.. well in japan they have real robot fights