Doctor Maggotty is Anxious about The End (2015)

Robot that uses the beak-wiping gesture of the Eurasian Magpie to relay messages to those around: to magpies that it is very well-fed yet nervous; to humans that know Morse code that it is in a state of constant mourning. Here, it is in a tree on the island of Amager outside of Copenhagen. This is a clip from an 11 minute video.

A magpie in a tree contemplating Doctor Maggotty and Death. Photograph by the artist. Doctor Maggotty is a robotic artwork by Ian Ingram that performs the service for a magpie funeral. Magpies are one of the few non-human species believed to conduct funerals.

Assistants: Reid Mitchell, Jonas Joergensen, Morten Nielsen, and Thor Tao Hansen.

Thanks to: Gunhild Ravn Borggreen, Elizabeth Jochum, and Laura Beloff.

Supported in part by a CPH AIR Residency at Fabrikken, hosted by the ROCA Group at the University of Copenhagen and the Robotics, Evolution, and Art lab at ITU.