9/27/2005: Animated peeing sculpture

Undertoad • Sep 27, 2005 12:48 pm
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"Gotta go", is my only thought about this one; via Boing Boing, this is what appears to be public art in Vienna. I mean Prague.

There are peeing sculptures, and there are animatronic sculptures, but this artist appears to be the first to combine the two. From the English language web page for the project:

The idea is disarmingly simple. Two bronze sculptures pee into their oddly-shaped enclosure.

While they are peeing, the two figures move realistically. An electric mechanism driven by a couple of microproccesors swivels the upper part of the body, while the penis goes up and down. The stream of water writes quotes from famous Prague residents.

Visitor can interupt them by sending SMS message from mobile phone to a number, displayed next to the sculptures. The living statue then ‘writes’ the text of the message, before carrying on as before.


The web page features animations and videos (and audio!) so you can get an idea of what they're doing.

Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. :3_eyes:
barefoot serpent • Sep 27, 2005 12:55 pm
and still, no matter how hard you shake it -- that last drop still runs down your leg.
Hobbs • Sep 27, 2005 12:59 pm
I wonder if the artist has the statues programmed to shake or tap?
Perry Winkle • Sep 27, 2005 1:00 pm
Strange shape? Looks like the borders of Austria to me.

I remember seeing some statue of a little boy pissing into a fountain in Innsbruck. Can't remember what it's called though. I think it's near Maxamillian's apartment.
Perry Winkle • Sep 27, 2005 1:01 pm
Hobbs wrote:
I wonder if the artist has the statues programmed to shake or tap?


The video from the website is slightly disturbing...neat, but disturbing.
Perry Winkle • Sep 27, 2005 1:05 pm
Also, where did they find that this is in Vienna? Everything I can find says it's in Prague -- including the site linked above.
Undertoad • Sep 27, 2005 1:08 pm
My mistake, corrected.
Elspode • Sep 27, 2005 1:24 pm
This is going to be great fun after the first snowfall.
wolf • Sep 27, 2005 1:29 pm
There should be snow.

How does the, uh ... slate get cleared, so to speak, between writings? Can you actually tell what's being <s>scribed</s>dribbled?
LabRat • Sep 27, 2005 2:46 pm
I think it's kind of gross that they are standing in their 'pee'. It's not like they're in the shower...
glatt • Sep 27, 2005 3:01 pm
Someone needs to sneak some yellow dye into that fountain.
BigV • Sep 27, 2005 3:12 pm
Maybe it's different in Vienna, but "realistically", peeing while bronze is not an option, whether you shake, tap, or strangle. At least not for me.
Hobbs • Sep 27, 2005 4:37 pm
LabRat wrote:
I think it's kind of gross that they are standing in their 'pee'. It's not like they're in the shower...
:lol:

I had heard that there is a picture of two more animated statues located in the next courtyard. These two statues are squatting down cranking out a yam. All done in bronze complete with brass news papers and a silver roll of Charmin.


Ok, not really but this sort of floated through my head just now and I'm sitting here chuckling to myself.
BigV • Sep 27, 2005 4:44 pm
Oh, and ladies, when two guys have to take a leak a the same time and in the same place, we ALWAYS face the same direction, or away from each other. NEVER NEVER towards each other.

Life does NOT imitate art.
barefoot serpent • Sep 27, 2005 4:49 pm
well at least they observe The Code of Silence.
BigV • Sep 27, 2005 4:51 pm

Visitor can interupt them by sending SMS message from mobile phone to a number, displayed next to the sculptures. The living statue then ‘writes’ the text of the message, before carrying on as before.
Do they? How do they reply? How do they "write" the reply? "Written in water?" Ugh.
BigV • Sep 27, 2005 5:08 pm
Image

Hmmm. A pattern begins to emerge...

And here...
capnhowdy • Sep 27, 2005 5:56 pm
Poor guy..... having to live mornings for eternity. I guess prostate problems are the least of this bronze god's worries. Always use caution when peeing "bronzed".....it'll put your eye out. :lol:
BigV • Sep 27, 2005 6:18 pm
:lol2:





:vomit:
melidasaur • Sep 27, 2005 7:19 pm
There is the little pee boy in Brussels too... they even dress him up in clothes. When I went to Belgium in high school, we bought this one kid on the trip a chocolate pee boy for his birthday. I really wish I would have purchased a pee boy corkscrew.
SmartAZ • Sep 27, 2005 10:05 pm
I didn't need to see that.
seakdivers • Sep 28, 2005 12:04 am
Ummmm.... are we sure that he's peeing, and not doing something else? He seems a bit "firm" even for a sculpture.

Or he's stuck with a perpetual morning pee boner...
wolf • Sep 28, 2005 1:01 am
melidasaur wrote:
There is the little pee boy in Brussels too... they even dress him up in clothes. When I went to Belgium in high school, we bought this one kid on the trip a chocolate pee boy for his birthday. I really wish I would have purchased a pee boy corkscrew.


I have seen "Les Mannekin des Pis" cork screws. They are quite absurd. I think they were a popular item in the Public Radio catalogs a few years back (Signal and Wireless, I believe). I also remember the "drink servers." You put your adult beverage of choice in the dispenser, push the little button and he wees into your glass.

I am afraid that I know the kind of people that would think such a thing was clever.
axlrosen • Sep 28, 2005 9:47 am
How did the artist get Bon Jovi to pose for him?
Hobbs • Sep 28, 2005 10:45 am
seakdivers wrote:
Ummmm.... are we sure that he's peeing, and not doing something else? He seems a bit "firm" even for a sculpture.

Or he's stuck with a perpetual morning pee boner...

Yeah. Never, even during my drunkest nights, did I ever feel compelled to take a leak with a double-fisted grip.
Hobbs • Sep 28, 2005 10:50 am
We need to move this entire thread to the WTF thread because this is one big WTF! I don't know who's the real WTF here, the artist, the art it self, or purhaps the chic at the top of the ladder.
glatt • Sep 28, 2005 11:24 am
Interesting. Would you climb the ladder for a look?

I'd be curious, but afraid to look like a fool. I'm not sure if I would look in. I probably would, if there weren't too many people around.
BigV • Sep 28, 2005 12:08 pm
I bet it's dark and smelly. That's about all I need to know.
BigV • Sep 28, 2005 12:10 pm
Another installation of this same concept has the scuptures "vibrating and exuding a greasy liquid". Riiiiiiiiight.

Next!
John • Sep 28, 2005 2:00 pm
Looks like the borders of Austria to me.

The Czech Republic, actually.

And even though the artist doesn't say so on his site, either in English or in his native language, I think that's right:

Image
glatt • Sep 28, 2005 2:13 pm
Here's the Czech republic as seen from that angle from the northeast on Google Earth. I think we have a match.
glatt • Sep 28, 2005 2:15 pm
.
BigV • Sep 28, 2005 2:19 pm
Another revelation of the ineffectiveness of security through obscurity. "random shape"... right.
LabRat • Sep 28, 2005 3:39 pm
Maybe this is some sort of political statement, you know "piss on the Czech republic".

Kind of like those stupid calvin's pissing on the ford or chevy or whatever that you see posted on trucks.
Happy Monkey • Sep 28, 2005 3:47 pm
Maybe the statues represent particular Prague residents.
TheDormouse • Sep 30, 2005 1:06 am
Don't you think it's all meant for contempt? I mean, there are these statues pissing out quotes of famous Prague residents, in a piss-filled Czech Republic-shaped structure. Adding to the insolence, the statues will even write out people's text messages in their urine.


This seems like a high-tech version of the Crucifix dumped in urine that was done years ago, but this time aimed at the Czech Republic, more specifically at the people of Prague.