Twitching frog server gets called "art"

Similar to the previously seen Text-o-possum, someone's bad art project has spread, virus-like, to the internet, where we have to be subjected to its heavy-handed proclamations on the role of technology in modern society. This time it's "Experiments in Galvanism", a tiny server embedded in a dead frog, submerged in mineral oil, which is remotely made to twitch via Galvanism (the contraction of a muscle when stimulated by electric current). Of course, the piece's creator Garnet Hertz has a little more going for him than the Text-o-possum's architect. Firstly, besides the fact that the frog is dead, it actually does have a kind of server inside of it, and secondly, Garnet has managed to convince other people that he's put together something legitimately special -- which is half the trick of art, really. If you've been looking for something to wax philosophical over, hit the read link.

[Via Wired]

[Chris @ Jul 26th 2007 12:46PM]

How disappointing

[Alvin @ Jul 25th 2007 11:16PM]

This is toad-ally cool. I'll be sure to factor in the hops generated by this server. But I won't jump to any conclusions just yet!


Ribbet.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 26th 2007 12:42AM]

You'll be heck of fly with this froggy server tricking out your (lily) pad.

[Clayj @ Jul 25th 2007 11:20PM]

"When I said let's go gig some frogs, this ain't what I meant!"

[Elaine @ Jul 25th 2007 11:23PM]

Animal labor laws, anyone?

[Mike I @ Jul 26th 2007 12:05AM]

Zodiac killer?

[Ian @ Jul 25th 2007 11:41PM]

I read over the website. That is SO so SO so SO weird! I'm not quiet sure how I feel about it, but I would feel extremely guilty and nauseous going to that website hosted WITHIN the frog and sending commands to make the dead frogs legs TWITCH!

It's really quite shocking. I don't believe I'm easily shocked either, so I really think there must be something past the line of "risqué" here.

[jmatt1122 @ Jul 25th 2007 11:48PM]

i feel bad for the frog.
this is kind of creepy in my opinion.
actually, any form of animal abuse/exploitation is wrong in my opinion.

[Majd Al-Shihabi @ Jul 26th 2007 5:31PM]

"animal abuse/exploitation is wrong"

And human abuse/exploitation is O.K.?

[John Doe @ Jul 26th 2007 12:56AM]

And at what point in his post did he suggest that human abuse/exploitation was O.K?

Oh he didn't because the damn thread isn't even about people. Hence the topic wasn't brought up.

I love the people who post on Engadget. They pull this shit out of their ass just to induce some form of conflict.

[Noah Mittman @ Jul 27th 2007 12:26AM]

@Majd, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[Mike @ Jul 25th 2007 11:50PM]

are you fucking kidding me, how would the owner like it if i shoved a fucking microprocessor and hydrolic pump up his ass and stuck him in my case... sick son of a bitch

[terrelbot @ Jul 26th 2007 12:20AM]

are you serious? do you over dramatize everything? i applaud the artist for a creative idea.

[Jeremy H @ Jul 26th 2007 1:08AM]

If he were [humanely] anesthetized then [painlessly] euthanized, I figure he wouldn't have much of an opinion on the matter.

Don't personify every dead organism and make ridiculous comparisons to a similar treatment of a human life. If it was an insect or a bacteria I doubt you'd even bother posting.

[emjoi @ Jul 26th 2007 1:38AM]

That's not a bad idea actually.
The Sphincter-Server. A future art project in there for sure.

Though I dread what commands you would send it.

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:28AM]

I completely agree.

@terrelbot
you wouldnt call it a creative idea if that was a family members corpse who'd been dug up... its sick and unnecessary. It is purely for shock appeal and the exploitation of any being (living or dead) is disgusting.

@Jeremy H
"If he were [humanely] anesthetized then [painlessly] euthanized, I figure he wouldn't have much of an opinion on the matter."

But i figure there would be a huge outcry at the sick twisted maniacal actions of this individual had he been using a human body. But since its an animal lower than humans who cares its art.

[scott @ Jul 26th 2007 12:06AM]

Well, better than what my classmates did to the frogs they got ahold of in biology...

*shivers*

I feel sorry for this frog, but maybe we all should feel sorry for the other million or so frogs that are used in an even less respectful manner...

[L.M.L.Y.P @ Jul 26th 2007 12:07AM]

GROsSSS!! movie is mov file! and its screenshots are in macs ! BAN THIS FROM THE INTERNETZ!

[Chris @ Jul 26th 2007 12:10AM]

it uses servos to move the frogs legs, not Galvanism. Quite misleading. if it truely was Galvanism then we'd have the first robot frog zombie, which would be much cooler

[WhackMushroom @ Jul 26th 2007 12:20AM]

that upside down toilet got mocked as well .. this is groundbreaking.

[Dustin @ Jul 26th 2007 12:29AM]

Jesus this is VERY OLD I think Engadget has done this before (or it may have been hackaday)

[John Doe @ Jul 26th 2007 1:02AM]

For those of us who haven't seen this before we will ask you to STFU. Personally I don't care if its 7 year old news. Its a damn blog. They can post anything they want to as long as its interesting.

Personally I want to see Engadget post the same article 5 days in a row. Every asshole who gets annoyed by old news will get into such a pissed off rage that they will have a stroke and we can be done with them.

[Neebs @ Jul 26th 2007 12:36AM]

But, Mr. Ebert, is it "high art?"

Wait, this isn't Joystiq. Poor show.

[Brian @ Jul 26th 2007 12:45AM]

Thus, the end to one Budweiser Frog.
I bet he regrets signing the "donate body to science" line now.

[drainoed @ Jul 26th 2007 12:55AM]

Ha! Thought it was Damien Hirst when I first saw it.

[Miles @ Jul 26th 2007 1:41AM]

Who needs frogs anyways?

They should be extinct. They are useless and annoying.

[Chris @ Jul 26th 2007 9:58AM]

i really hope that was supposed to be sarcasm

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:37AM]

I hope you were trolling... if not maybe you should educate yourself on how ecosystems work and how removing a single species causes things to fall apart.

Every post i see with your name attached to it Miles is ignorant, useless, and annoying. Engadget would be a much better place if you were to just not exist anymore.

[Kiryen @ Jul 26th 2007 1:04PM]

@Nick
"...maybe you should educate yourself on how ecosystems work and how removing a single species causes things to fall apart.

... Engadget would be a much better place if you were to just not exist anymore."

Forgive me if I'm all Alanis on this one, but this *is* irony, ain't it?

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:34PM]

yes.. i was hoping miles would be able to pick up on it.

[dj-kenpo @ Jul 26th 2007 2:05AM]

isn't art supposed to bring up bigger issues? perhaps if the frong-server was reactive towards, say pollustion levels in a certian stream, seeing as it's in water for the display and seeing as polluted streams effect frogs...
but simply placing it in water with a servo and web based button to move it? sorry, maybe this is trolling but my oppinion is it isn't art, it's a simplistic idea any demented 14 yr old could come up with.

[Simon @ Jul 26th 2007 7:16PM]

I'm more of the opinion that this art itself is trolling, done for shock value more than anything else. However, if the purpose of art is to elicit a response, isn't trolling one of the most effective art forms?

[dj-kenpo @ Jul 26th 2007 2:27AM]

also, after looking at the photos, it's just all store bought off the shelf parts. the webserver was prebuilt, not by the artist, the servos are just dragon flys, all he did was buy soem parts and cable tie them onto a dead frong. wow, the skills involved, I'm so impressed.

[Cat Hermoso @ Jul 26th 2007 3:16AM]

poor frogenstein T_T

[PhAsR @ Jul 26th 2007 3:36AM]

wicked sick!

[Matt @ Jul 26th 2007 5:28AM]

You're a tech blogger. PLEASE don't try and judge art.

[Josh @ Jul 26th 2007 11:37AM]

>You're a tech blogger. PLEASE don't try and judge art.

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. If art is not for consumption by the general public, why did this thing ever leave this guy's basement? It's obvious that Engadget readers have properly judged the artist on technical merit: it's controlled by servos, not galvanism, negating the very premise of the piece. It's also poorly assembled (wire ties? wtf?).

So what you're essentially saying is that these things take a back seat to the concept, and that we feebleminded readers don't have the capacity to understand the concept? Please.

[Simon @ Jul 26th 2007 7:23PM]

You're right. We're not qualified to appreciate art - I feel ashamed at our presumption that maybe we were able to form our own opinions...

[Otto @ Jul 26th 2007 8:27AM]

There's a photo close up of the frog that just ruined my day.

[Barney @ Jul 26th 2007 9:33AM]

Did anyone but me notice the servos controlling the legs not "Galvanism"?

[dj-kenpo @ Jul 26th 2007 11:14AM]

yes, they're dragon fly servos $12 each cable tied onto the legs. first rule of art is your viewers are usually gullable enough to beleive whatever you tell them.

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 26th 2007 11:05AM]

Originally the frog wouldn't kick when anyone but the "inventor" was looking.
He later went crazy and tried to bury in in the foundation of a building that was going up.

...Hello ma baby hello ma honey hello ma uptime gaaaal
Send me a twitch by wire
Baby ma heart's on fire...

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:38PM]

lol.. great cartoon.

[Rowdyrodman @ Jul 26th 2007 11:18AM]

My thoughts exactly. This isn't utilizing the nervous system of the frog at all. As anyone who has ever cracked open a turtle shell and used electrical current to control his heart muscle(and haven't we all??) knows that the effect will be lost at a rapid rate. I mean since the frog is dead the acetylcholine will be used up very quickly and there will be none left(or resupplied by the dead frog)within the nerve to make it function. Hence this 'artist' using servos to move the frog's legs, so this is nothing more than a robot with a froggy suit.

[BananaBoat @ Jul 26th 2007 7:40PM]

I love it when all the crazy PETA retards show up for various stories on Engadget. It's a FROG you losers, the same type of frog that millions of school children dissect each year across the world. Bash the "art" or the idea behind it, but oh lord, if you bash the guy for abusing a FROG, then you have no business being on the internet.

Having said that, I like this guys idea less than the girl that hollowed out a taxidermied beaver and installed a computer inside. THAT was "art" rofl.

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:49PM]

"Bash the "art" or the idea behind it, but oh lord, if you bash the guy for abusing a FROG, then you have no business being on the internet."

what does my feelings towards the treatment of animals have anything to do with me being on the web? please explain maybe i am too logical of a being to be able to make the connection. But if this were a case of people arguing over OSX vs Windows it would be okay for me to use the web because it is much more intelligent and more important to open discussion about whose flavor of OS is better than how we should treat other animals.

[kyle allen @ Jul 27th 2007 12:01AM]

heck, the poor little guy is more tech than art by this point.

[Brian @ Jul 27th 2007 11:49AM]

By all means anybody is welcome to comment on an art work but its funny as hell when people obviously dont have a clue. So what if it uses off the shelf parts and for christs sake wire ties?!? All that doesnt matter. You wouldnt expect this to be meticulously crafted in bronze. It is after all the idea that matters... (I know thats hard to grasp!) Ian has it right, its bloody creepy being 'inside' the frog when you log onto it. Look up "transmogrification". And so what if galvanism technically doesnt make the legs twitch... the legs do twitch because of electrical signals interpreted by the servos which is close enough. Im also curious about this 'poor frog' crap. Is it exploitation for middle school kids to dissect frogs to learn more about biology? If the artist was clearing the everglades of all frog life for the sake of art then fine, but I dont think a single frog artwork (which is really gross) is going to destroy the earths frog population!

[sitsah @ Aug 23rd 2007 11:19PM]

It doesn't matter whether it's a frog or a human being or a fly or a geranium for that matter. The point is-it's DEAD, people! It can't feel pain! It would be truly sick and wrong if someone were doing this to a LIVE organism, but they're not.