Artist
Survival Research Laboratories
Survival Research Laboratories, an industrial music artist from the 1980s, creates mechanized performances that blend noise, chaos, and destruction.
About
Survival Research Laboratories, founded by Mark Pauline in 1978, transformed performance art into a battlefield of machines. Their work from 1984 to 1989 was not music but a mechanized symphony of destruction. Performances were arenas where custom-built robots clashed, spewing noise and chaos. The aural assault and visual mayhem were relentless, a dystopian ballet of metal and fire. Releases like "Illusions Of Shameless Abundance" (1989) on Charnel Music captured these spectacles on tape, while videos such as "A Scenic Harvest from the Kingdom of Pain" (1985) documented the industrial carnage. With distribution across VHS, cassette, and magazine formats, SRL collaborated with labels like 235 Media, Ikon, and Staalplaat. Their legacy lies not in melody but in the visceral impact of machines unleashed, a mechanical opera that resonated with artists like Otomo Yoshihide and Tony Conrad. In the domain of large-scale machine performance, SRL stands as a monolith of innovation and chaos.
