Artist Spotlight
Gill Saligman
Gill is MoA’s resident engineer, repurposing old machines and banking equipment into new automated sculptures. With no formal art background, he blends engineering skills and playful curiosity to bring discarded tech to life. His kinetic creations blur the line between function and imagination, inviting people to see machines not just as tools, but as expressive, evolving forms of creativity.
Can you tell us a bit about your background in robotics and how you got into this field?
I did robotics in high school where we had a new competition each year. We were presented with 120 pages explaining the rules of a game but no guidance on how to play it. We had six weeks to interpret these rules and to build a robot that did that. It’s new every year. That’s where I started. It’s all about creative problem solving‚ it’s up to you to figure out how you want to get to the end goal. I went to college for mechanical engineering but continued to spend my time doing robotics.
How would you describe the stuff you’re making for MoA?
I’m adding technology to old machines that no longer work, or making them work differently. Sometimes I’m creating something from scratch using hobbyist technology and 3D printed pieces. Once Ministry of Awe opens, I hope to apply for the acrobat position.
Before this, did you ever imagine yourself working in a creative or artistic way?
No, I didn’t. I recently had an internship at a SubC Rov company and I thought that was as creative as I could get. I’ve always enjoyed hands-on projects but engineering work usually has a clear direction and a defined set of parameters to hit. At MoA, my projects start with more of a conceptual end goal and I’m set free without any rules or restrictions on how I get there. It really allows me to have autonomy over these projects and become passionate about them.
What does your creative process look like when you start with an old machine or piece of bank equipment?
It requires a lot of planning in the beginning. I feel like it’s the opposite of a painting, where you can keep editing and adding to it forever. With what I’m doing, you need the structure and the overall goal at the beginning, which makes it hard to pivot. Now being in the art world, there’s a lot more prototyping, and I have the interesting challenge of thinking through how these projects would change if they needed to along the way.
How has your view of creativity changed since you started making these sculptures?
I still don’t consider what I do to be super creative. In my head I’m just putting the building blocks together of these mechanical pieces. It doesn’t feel like I’m thinking outside of the box. When designing with technology in general, it’s hard to create something brand new. What I’m using isn’t cutting edge; it’s new to what I’m making but they’re pretty standard mechanisms in the robotics world. The spots that require the most creativity or brain power, are the parts that people won’t see: everything that’s happening within or behind these machines. I take pride in that since the point is to create that sense of wonder.
Have you ever discovered something unexpected inside a machine that completely changed the idea for a piece?
Everything is unexpected. Probably the coolest thing so far has been the typewriter I’ve worked on, because it has an old circuit board which I’d never worked with before. I recognized some parts of it but a lot of these machines are from the 1970s. There’s no documentation out there and I can’t find much information. Being able to trick the typewriter into mimicking a keyboard was a fun challenge and took a lot of testing.
Do you consider what you make to be art?
To me, art is unexpected. With the stuff I’m making, I know exactly what it’s doing and I don’t have the illusion of these things working on their own. It’s not super artistic to me, but I could imagine someone else looking at these pieces and questioning how it’s working and what its purpose is.
Have you had any mentors or influences along the way, artistic or otherwise?
Violet and William (of Spatial Pixel), who I jokingly call my Work Mom and Dad, are awesome. I would spend two days a week with them working in their space and they’d answer any question I had. I really admire all the stuff they're working on for Ministry of Awe;it’s all stuff they’ve pitched themselves. I make things that are an idea from someone else. What they do is really admirable and thoughtful.
Do you see yourself continuing in this hybrid space of robotics and sculpture?
My next step is to go to grad school. I hope to do a lot more hands-on work, like what I’m doing now. This is such a unique place and experience. I’m not sure where else it would exist.
What’s “awe-inspiring” to you?
Everything around working at Ministry of Awe. With engineering, you set metrics and you can track how far along you are against those metrics. There are fewer projects like that here. The concept of “finished” is different in this space and can sometimes feel chaotic to me. It can feel like I have so many small tasks to continue to work on. But then when I zoom out, everything is moving along and progressing towards opening. It’s almost like everything is moving together like a machine. Also everyone's creativity and willingness to make things work is really inspiring.
