[Robotgroup] Bruce Shapiro 2nd attempt

[Richard Abbott]

Hi Rick,

A friend of mine, from Minneapolis, was down at the Austin Maker 
Faire.  He was surprised when he saw your sand and eggplotters, but 
not me.  He sent me a couple photos of your exhibit.

First-- thank you for acknowledging my work as your inspiration.  I 
was hoping to do the Austin Faire (I presented at both San Mateo 
events), but schedule conflicts prevented it.  I do, however, have a 
couple comments:

1) I consider my works to be art pieces.  You call my "Sisyphus" a 
sculpture , and your "Sisyphus" a sculpture, so I assume that you 
agree with this classification.  But by copying not only the action 
of the machine, but also its name, I believe you are crossing the 
line.  I would ask you, respectfully, not to use this name to title 
your sand plotter(s).  You are hardly the first to copy my work: 
http://www.carlsondesign.com/sandplotter.html is just one 
example.  They credit my work, but do not copy the name.

2) Your signage implied that in my Sisyphus sculpture, I hide the 
mechanism.  Since 1998, I have made four versions.  Only the first 
(Sisyphus I) has the mechanism enclosed within a wooden box.  The 
"guts" are revealed, however, on my website: 
http://www.taomc.com/art_machines/sisyphus.htm  All the subsequent 
versions have the mechanism exposed-- Sisyphus II (at the Science 
Museum of Minnesota and the Exploratorium in San Francisco), Sisyphus 
III (in Winterthur Switzerland, where the public can walk entirely 
beneath the machine and inspect its mechanism), and Sisyphus IV, 
which I built for travelling (NYC, Fort Worth, Dublin, London, 
Belgium so far).  I had planned to show Sis IV at the Maker Faire in 
San Mateo last May, but it had recently returned from Belgium, and 
was damaged in transit.  With no time to fix it, I grabbed Sis I, and 
showed it instead.

I am particularly sensitive to this last issue.  Throughout my 17+ 
years of involvement in developing motion control as an art medium, I 
have devoted a good deal of my time and energy toward education and 
the dissemination of the technical skills and information required 
for beginners to enter the field (see the portion of my site 
entitled, "teaching machines," and the 
tutorial:  http://www.taomc.com/bits2bots/index.htm ).  It is very 
disheartening to read: "Unlike Dr. Shapiro's design, The Robot Group 
reveals its inner mechanism."

I also see that you have built an egg plotter.  Congratulations.  I 
did not receive any pictures of your signage for it, but again, I 
hope that you are not calling it "Eggbot."

Thank you for your interest in my work, and I hope you will receive 
these comments in the spirit with which they are intended-- a simple 
appeal for fairness.

Bruce


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