Jewelbots, 2086

People that truly know David Michael might think robots, even jewelled robots, don’t fit into our core set of beliefs or interests given that we stubbornly continue to create works entirely by hand. You’d actually be kind of correct in that judgment, I love making art that celebrates the human and our sentimentality. Jewels that rebel against today’s technological world where computer aided design programs and 3D printers are taking jobs and skills out of human hands at a rapid pace, robots now build robots.
Having said that there was a time when robots were created by humans, by artists and craft people, and these are what interested me and captured my imagination as a child, this childhood excitement is what has inspired these series of sketches.

Two of my favourite things as a child involved robots, first there was The Jetsons, a space age counterpart to the Flintstones which I would watch back in the 80’s on New Zealand television. (Interesting fact from the show, George Jetson was born in this year, 2022) Cartoons were so great back then, back when they use to be animated by hand and not at all like these soulless computer generated examples kids have to sit through today. The Jetsons was is full of vitality and colour, which was so captivating, there were also many robots that would be zipping around everywhere which is where I guess my interest started.

My other childhood favourite were Transformers, the action figures. Actually there was the Transformer cartoon I’d watch also but the action figure toy robots were the main draw card and really amazing. Thinking back to them now it’s really inspiring to think that they were designed and made by human hand a decade before 3D computer aided design and before robotic 3D printers which are so wide spread now in jewellery making and every industry.

While robots of today (computer controlled 3D printers) take skills and jobs out of human hands, the robots of my childhood were created by artistic humans. This human input gave the robots of my childhood a soul and vitality that has inspired page after page of random robot designs in my sketchbooks, I’d like to share a small sample of them here with you, and how they have evolved over time.