The Mondo Spider in all its community-building glory

Thanks mostly to dumb luck, I have become responsible for the publicity of an art project called the Mondo Spider, made by a foundation called eatART, during a sporting event called the Olympics. The Mondo Spider is a giant (8×8-foot) steel robot spider. It’s currently being upgraded to electric power, making it the world’s first zero-emissions walking vehicle. And it represents one of the most interesting communities I’ve ever come across.

Allow me to provide a little background.

In 2005, a crew of masochistic young engineers participated in the Vancouver Junkyard Wars. Tasked with building a walking machine, they created a pared-down version of the spider. They also created a monster. The Mondo Spider, Badass Steel Edition, would consume the next year of their lives. By August of 2006, the beast was ready to lurch and stomp its way to international notoriety.

Daisy, the Solar-Powered Tricycle

From there it was an easy jump to formalizing the group that had quickly and passionately galvanized around the spider. “Basically,” explains co-creator and eatART director Jonathan Tippet, “you had a bunch of people interested in art, Burning Man, and parties, and a bunch of professionals itching to make large-scale, audacious sculpture. Both groups had waaaaay too much energy.”

eatART, the non-profit art laboratory-come-foundation, was born.

Since then, remarkable growth has occurred. eatART became a registered formal entity in 2008. Its artistic endeavors have included ContainR, a solar-paneled mobile cinema (recently on display in front of the Vancouver Public Library); a partnership with Daisy, the solar-paneled tricycle; 3E-ROI, an 80-foot long helix curve tracing evolution in terms of culture and technology; and a part in the Gramorail project, building pedal-powered vehicles for display on Vancouver’s disused railway lines.

Perhaps most importantly for eatART’s longevity, it also found a home.

The eatART laboratory on the Great Northern Way Campus is an indication of how this community functions. The day I visit – which, I’m assured, is A-typical – I am made party to a strategic communications meeting, the constant shriek of welding and metal-grinding, the taping of a television interview with BCIT Magazine, and Tippet, launching himself around the room in a hammock hung from a heavy-duty crane. The group moves from focused professionalism to hearty laughter and back again effortlessly, and the cluttered, vibrant lab space feels like your parents’ rec room and a boardroom all at once.

3E-ROI basks in the Nevada sunset

What I like the most about the work I do for eatART is being affiliated with eatART. Let’s face it – these guys are cool. They’ve taken some seemingly unrelated threads – Art! Technology! Engineering! Environmental activism! Hammocks! Cranes! – and tied them into a package worth marveling at.

A moving spider the size of Honda Civic; a shipping container housing a movie theater, powered by the sun; a stunningly beautiful conceptual piece celebrating the potential of technology… all built and exhibited in hopes of inspiring responsible energy use.

These are not your average art pieces, nor your average artists. This is, however, one radical and above-average community.

eatART is hosting a fundraiser and unveiling its Zero Emissions Mondo Spider on Saturday, January 16. Come on down to 577 Great Northern Way to witness history. Admission by donation. More details are available at www.eatart.org.