How to make a Monster

This is an exhibition about the art and technology of animatronics from a Queensland company specialising in animatronics for Hollywood. Their credits include Inspector Gadget 2, George of the Jungle 2 and a few others. This is one big showreel. It's interesting nonetheless to see how with a lot of plasticine, silicon and fibreglass you can create really cool monsters and with wheels, cables, bolts and joints, make these animals come alive. A worthwhile exhibition for Sunday at Scienceworks.

Getting to the exhibition was a real pain because it's school holidays and parking was a problematic. After a couple of hours of pulling levers to make the fake animals and monsters come to live, we had our fill. Plus Mad Animator's mind was now full of ideas and he wanted to go to his friend's place to play with other inanimate objects like the computer.

As we headed towards the parking lot, I saw a ball of fluttering feathers. A little sparrow unable to lift its head from the ground. Its right wing was fluttering endlessly, like a clockwork toy that's come up against an obstacle. For the sparrow though, it looked like it was making rings around the tarred surface of the parking lot. I knew something was broken, but it couldn't be fixed with wires, cables or silicon. I picked it up from the tarred surface. If it was going to die, best be on a flower bed. We moved onto the car. As we drove past, the bird had somehow fluttered its way back to the gravel. Cars drove past precariously close. Another sparrow kept it company. Again I picked it up and tucked it deeper onto the flower bed. I drove off - checking through the rearview mirror that it hasn't flutterred back to the road.

And now, whenever I think of animatronics, I see the image of a little sparrow, broken, but still fluttering for life against the canvas of a roughly tarred surface that is the parking lot.