Page 40 - Studio Internationa - March 1971

Th conditional probability machine:

a new work by Eduardo Paolozzi

Diane Kirkpartrick

The Conditional Probability Machine presents NASA space exhibit provided many clues about calculated in each case. A very deep etch
the new surrealism of life in the present. These scale of image and the use of words. produced a curious reversal which was
24 prints encapsulate something of the myth, All the research and experimentation finally exploited in some of the prints : when black
the magic, the wonder and the menace of human gelled in a print of an astronaut-robot. The areas were deeply bitten, the hand-wiping
existence as it is increasingly linked to the source was a photograph of one of the toy robots during printing lifted the ink completely out of
technological world. The four groups of images in Paolozzi's collection, taken by Norman the cavities, producing white areas and giving
reflect some of the recent changes in man's Cottrell of Ipswich to the artist's specifications. a pseudo-solarization effect. The plates were
attitude toward his relationship to the machine. Since his student days, Paolozzi has been printed in the traditional method using damp
In Secret of Life, man regards himself as a intrigued by the power of tiny Rembrandt and paper, hand-wiped plates and a standard star
machine (cybernetics) and also sees himself as Diirer prints. He deliberately ordered the robot press so the utmost control could be exercised
the site of fantastic physiological dramas image reduced to the smallest scale he felt would at this final stage.
(Romanticism, Symbolism, Surrealism). In be effective. The plate was then cropped to give Secret of Life presents the human body in
From Genot to UNIMATE, the machine a tight inner 'field' within the total sheet. mechanistic terms seen through a veil of
amplifies man or replaces him. Manikins for The complete success of the robot print led fantasy. The images come from The Secret of
Destruction show some of the heterogeneous to plans for the present portfolio of etchings. In Life: The Human Machine and How it Works, a
`stand-ins' for man used as tools to gain selecting images, Paolozzi began exploring the book given to Paolozzi in Paris in 1948 by Peter
knowledge for the future. With Pages from The mysterious effect of pairing certain images to Watson (co-editor of Horizon which published
Aerospace Medical Library, man and animal heighten their impact. In The Moment of the first article on Paolozzi's work). The book
become part of the testing equipment. Conception (Secret of Life), the male and female embodied the intellectual climate of the 4os in
Paolozzi has always collected images which reproductive organs rest side by side in a poetic its blend of surrealist ideas and more scientific
struck him as potent metaphors of modern life. symbol of actual union. The two views of the mechanical visions. Paolozzi's own work at this
Consistently, he has experimented with ways to decompression chamber (Pages from The time, with its simultaneously organic and
use them in his work. Many became part of slide Aerospace Medical Library) focus on the machined appearance, reflected his interest in
lectures, films, books and screenprints. Some hard-soft qualities of the partnership between the Surrealists' blending of fascination about
eluded such translation, needing a straight living organism and machine. The twin image man's relationship to the machine with a feeling
presentation which yet could isolate, transmute of the M.I.R.A. test dummy (Manikins for for the mysteries of nature and man's psyche.
and focus them. In July 1970 Paolozzi saw some Destruction) makes a poignant play on 'before The images in Secret of Life generate the
prints which Gordon House had made using a and after' advertising. The mouse/Coca-Cola same hermetic mixture. Reproduction,
commercial etching process. The possibilities of print (Pages from The Aerospace Medical Moment of Conception and Hazardous Journey
adapting this medium to his own work excited Library) suggests a different 'before and after' deal with the secret of physical life and the
Paolozzi and he asked House to work with him theme as the vanishing Coke and its miracle of procreation. Bird and Conception
on transforming two images—a robot and the accompanying time-table reverberate against Through Impression consider the marvellous
interior of a rocket assembly plant—into the results of an experiment which might have operation of man's senses in touch with his
etchings. The resulting prints encouraged taken place during the measured moments. environment. Inside the Brain concerns the
Paolozzi to explore further. The transformation of each image into its mystery of the creative thought-life of man.
He had just completed General Dynamic etching was carefully controlled at all stages of The artistic style of the images varies. The
F.U.N. at Editions Alecto. He mentioned his the process. The scale and composition of each procreation trio is conceived as a series of
interest in the commercial etching process to print was carefully planned by the artist. At surreal landscapes, almost Dali-esque in their
Lyn Haywood at Alecto. Haywood proposed Central Etching, each image was dynamic visualization of the beginning of
making etchings of some of the G.D.F. images, photographically copied to its specified size human life. The two sensory prints turn the
using screen-printed resists and 8o-and too-line through the designated half-tone screen. A world of perception into machine environments
half-tone screens. The results did not have positive was made from each negative which which evoke the realm of Magritte. Inside the
enough precision for Paolozzi. A commercial completed the translation of the tones of the Brain combines the two styles, presenting a
etching firm was needed. Central Etching original into a series of dots (more dots in the section of organic landscape which is also
Service Ltd of London agreed to adapt their dark areas and fewer dots in the light sections). simultaneously a detail of an electronic
powderless-etch method (used primarily for The positive was contact-printed onto a copper computer and the face-head of a giant robot-
planographic printing) to make the intaglio plate covered with a photo-sensitive lacquer. baboon.
plates Paolozzi wanted. Wherever the light hit the plate, the lacquer From Genot to UNIMATE explores the robot
A long series of experiments followed. Three hardened into an acid-resistant coat. In the world. Humanoid robot images abound in the
different plates were made from a picture of a unexposed areas (wherever there were dots) the Paolozzi archives (one even appeared in the
toy robot commando. Each plate was etched to lacquer remained soft. The soft lacquer was slide talk he gave in 1952 at the ICA). A large
a different depth and different sized half-tone washed away and the plate was etched in a proportion are the giant robot soldiers whose
screens were used. Much was learned, but none special-formula iron-perchloride, which captive destructive power fascinates modern
of the prints were acceptable for Paolozzi's allowed as deep an etch as required while adult and child alike. Genot is an early ancestor
purposes. The head of a jet pilot was tried with holding the shape of the dots. The deeper the of more futuristic fighters like the robot
a very deep etch. The result was promising but dots, the more ink each would retain during commando, captained by a child who seems
the textures were too distorted. The plate of a printing, so the depth of etch was carefully himself a toy manikin, or the parade 'robot',

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