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Culobocca

  • Project: Culobocca
  • Date: 2007-Present
  • Performance Photography: Mara Gerstein, Rachel Cheetham-Richard, Marc Fiaux

Glowing Culobocca from Robert Kirkbride on Vimeo.

Liquid Culobocca from Robert Kirkbride on Vimeo.

Micro Culobocca from Robert Kirkbride on Vimeo.

Culobocca is an ongoing exploration of a family of continuous, self-penetrating forms that are simultaneously interior and exterior, entropy and emergence. Culobocca is a nod to the alpha and omega of the body, and our navel-gazing tendency as a species to consider ourselves as universal be-all and end-all. Culobocca has been featured in the National Academy of Science’s Issues in Science and Technology, Tack Magazine, Alphabet City's FUEL, 70 Architect(e)s, and exhibited in Italy, Canada and Mexico.

Let’s see what happens when…
…this happens…
…keeping in mind…
…forget about it…
Last time we tried that, this happened…
This time let’s try this…

Culobocca originated as a line drawing of an object that passes through itself while chasing its tail, as an inkling of how thinking and making are mutually replenishing, and has evolved into an evergrowing family of enigmatic three dimensional forms animated by a range of materials and methods of production; including 3D printing, two- and three-part casting in porcelain and silicon, and origami with paper and felt. In one branch of the family, the surface is inscribed with the palindrome, REVELEVER; in another, elliptical phrases trace the life cycle of an idea, including the synaptic leap to the center ring, from “Let’s see what happens when…” to “This time let’s try this…”

Many Research Assistants have contributed to this project, including Veronica Choi, Hironao Kato, Lisa Marks, Laura Rodriguez, Christine Sheu, Mindy Tom, Richard Yeh, and Artin Yip.

Featured In

Tack Magazine

“Interview: Robert Kirkbride on Design, Part II,” by Carolyn Hartmann (April 16/17, 2014)

ISSUES In Science and Technology

Project featured: Culobocca, cover photo plus seven additional photos by Robert Kirkbride, accompanying “Getting More Miles per Gallon,” National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XXV, No. 2 (Winter 2009), pp. 71-80

FUEL: Alphabet City

Text and photos by Robert Kirkbride, No. 13, ed. John Knechtel (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), pp. 328-45 (ISBN: 978-0-262-11325-0)

70 architect(e)s: On Ethics and Poetics

Exhibition catalog for 20 Years of History and Theory of Architecture at McGill University, curated by Louis Pelletier and Alberto Pérez-Gómez (2007)

Performances With

2017

Photon Ecstasy NYC Premiere

  • Featuring New Renaissance artist Elizabeth A. Baker and percussionist Payton McDonald
  • Pete’s Candy Store
  • New York, NY
  • November 18

2017

Photon Ecstasy

  • The Emmet O’Neal Library
  • Mountain Brook, AL
  • October 14

2017

l’Ao performs Trappist-1

  • Featuring Tom Piercy
  • Bargemusic
  • Brooklyn, NY
  • September 22

2017

l’Artiste ordinaire returns to perform Trappist-1

  • Strange Stage – Muchmores
  • Brooklyn, NY
  • May 26

2016

Photon Ecstasy (extended excerpt)

  • Electroacoustic Barn Dance
  • Eyeclopes Gallery
  • Fredericksburg, VA
  • November 12

2016

Photon Ecstasy World Premiere

  • Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
  • University of Pennsylvania Libraries
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • October 20

2011

New works by Melissa Grey for ensemble and pre-recorded sound

  • Featuring: Melissa Grey (composer), Angela Grauerholz/Réjean Myette (video), Marge Fitts (harp), Lisa Hansen (flute), David Byrd-Marrow (horn), Mioi Takeda (violin), Kris Saebo (double bass), Robert Kirkbride (siren), Jonathan Ori (siren), Nathan Thompson (siren)
  • The Stone
  • New York, NY
  • March 23

Exhibited At

2012

Teatro San Giorgio (Udine, Italy) October 16 - 20

  • Jury-selected group show: SQUARE, curated by Francesca Agostinelli for the Contemporanea 2012 New Music Festival produced by Taukay Edizioni Musicali and Delta Produzioni Cultural Association/Vox Novus
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca Squared (digital photo print, 60 x 60 cm)

2011

Art Academy of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) February 18

  • 24th Annual Minumental Show
  • Jury-selected group show: 60 x 60 Images
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca (“Longnose Overhead”: digital photo print, 60 x 60 cm)

2010

Centro de las Artes de San Luis Potosi (Mexico) November 22 – December 3

  • Arte Sonoro
  • Jury-selected group show: 60 x 60 Images
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca (“Longnose Overhead”: digital photo print, 60 x 60 cm)

2010

Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine (Udine, Italy) October 12 – 24

  • Jury-selected group show: 60 x 60 Images, curated by Francesca Agostinelli for the Contemporanea Festival produced by Taukay Edizioni Musicali and Delta Produzioni Cultural Association/Vox Novus.
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca (“Longnose Overhead”: digital photo print, 60 x 60 cm)

2008

Toronto Free Gallery (Toronto, Canada) November 27 - January 3, 2009

  • Group show: RIG: Design From the Fuel Transition
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca (2 pieces: culobocca + longnose) with shape poem

2007

Centre de design, Université du Québec à Montréal (Montréal, Canada) September 20 - October 21

  • Group show: 70 Architects on Love
  • Exhibited work: Culobocca (2 pieces: culobocca + hornblower)

Projects