cyber raccoon

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

and now for a completely different build, a computer controlled cyber raccoon built around a skeleton. The build uses computer parts, gears and fittings from all types of electronic items such as cell phones, computers, pocket watches, cameras etc.

The back story started when people began to implant tracking chips in their pets. Over the years military applications began to build live cyber raccoons for breaking into secure industrial buildings. Raccoons were used because of their natural ability of breaking into anything from garbage cans to buildings. By using live animals and combining cybergenic with the DNA within the living bones the animals over time learned to create themselves. As the racoons became smarter and smarter they themselves began to create the cyber cats who were used for intel and could download information from anything from cell phones to computers. Cats have a natural curiosity and watch everything humans do. Because humans were destroying the animals natural habitat they evolved to using electronic devices and the lithium in batteries as a source of power.



a sculpture of one of these early cyber raccoons ripping open a cell phone to get at the lithium battery

 

[ron0909]

What a piece of art! I love it! It is terrifyingly sinister whether it was AI inspired, raccoon evolution or plain old human meddling. I have to apologize though... I was cracking up after I imagined a crew of them like this, rutting and screeching like they used to do when the season came upon them
I used to live in Toronto and every year they went nuts across the rooftops.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the skeleton was found deep in one of the wood piles so I collected the bones cleaned and processes them. Raccoons are cleaver little critters and figured out how to break into my wife's garden house and steal the bird food, time and again they figure out how to open the trash cans, attempts to trap them and relocate them proves to be harder than we thought. If one gets caught in a trap they must teach one other how to avoid the trip to set the trap and steal the bait.

the idea of the cyber coon came from an interest in steampunk art. By using the tiny motors found in cameras, CD players and VHS machines plus computer parts and gears from all sorts of items I began to assemble the skeleton. The hard part was to figure out how to assemble the bones and adding the parts so it looked like it would actually work.

The sculpture was entered in several art shows and did win. As I sat there I got questions like "what software program are you using to make it move?"
does this thing actually move? I would be scared to have this in my house because while I am asleep I don't know what it might do. This belongs in a horror movie, this is something little kids dream about in nightmares, it is scary but I can't stop looking at it. In one show a judge would not even come near it she said it has a mojo that made her uneasy, Well! ok that is what art should do stir emotions and wonderment.

right now I am working on the drawings to recreate the steam engine for the steam frigate Mississippi but the cyber cat is on the work bench.

those cute furry little pets are busy while you sleep at night. They can plug into you phone, computer and any electronic devices, steal passwords open cars down load information even disable alarm systems and pass it on to the cyber Raccoons so they can invade buildings. Under that soft fur is this computer skin. Scary stuff from artificial intelligence to cyber robotics.