Tip o’ the iceberg! That’s a traditional Irish greeting
typed for your pleasure on 23 May 2017, at 12.23 amSdtrk: ‘Sonata elletronica’ by Malcolm Pointon
To say that it’s been hectic with us here lately is a wee bit of an understatement. It’s really a rich, artisanal blend of busyness and laziness that is the gold standard of Deafening silence Plus, to be honest. In order to keep things moving with this post, I’ll not get into it, but it’s mostly good things! We’re working on another collaboration with no less than Amber Hawk Swanson; we’ve a project in the works with writer Roc Morin; our family should be making an appearance on a Dutch telly show in Autumn; I’ll be going on a trip to SoCal which combines both Business and Pleasure also in Autumn, and Lilly, the robosexual lass from France who wants to marry her Android beau, will be visiting our humble abode in December. So yeah, I’d say that everything, for the most part, is comin’ up Milhouse!
In the interim since I last wrote a post of any substance that detailed Synthetik developments, there’s been a lot of news. A lot of news. No really, you don’t understand. Any time something interesting related to Dolls, Gynoids, or Androids crosses my news desk, I bookmark it, and the folder in which those bookmarks live is bulging with 175 articles. It’s very encouraging to see a growing interest in general society concerning Synthetiks — whether it’s media related like Westworld or Humans (sadly, we’ve still not watched either of them yet), or amazing new developments in Dolls, such as that luscious Harmony from Realbotix — the popularity, or at least awareness, of Synthetiks has kinda exploded in the past couple of years. Which, again, is fantastic, but I’m having trouble reporting all of these things! Maybe if I were to put down my PS4 controller… o, but wait, I’ve been playing NieR: Automata, a game in which you control either an Android or one of two Gynoids! And don’t forget about Detroit: Become human, a police procedural set in a future Detroit, where your character is 100% affictitious! That’s not coming out until 2018, but I’ve already pre-ordered it, because what part of Davecat do you not understand??
What I’m saying is that it’s a great time to be into Synthetiks! And if you’re not, now’s a good time to start, cos Synthetiks are the future. Don’t want to be left behind in the past, now, do we?
Bringing you a bit up to speed: in case you’re unfamiliar with who the aforementioned Lilly would be, she’s a lass living a couple of hours outside of Paris, who has been using a 3D printer to build her Android fiancé, Inmoovator. Much like me, she’s a robosexual, and has been for years, but through the InMoov robotics platform (which I’d written about in 2013), she’s only recently been able to work towards making her dreams come true.
photos courtesy of Lilly & Inmoovator
The happy couple were featured prominently in an episode of the CNN webseries, Mostly Human, hosted by Laurie Seagall, from earlier in the year. Lilly and I have been keeping up with each others’ lives since we met late last year, as she was in the situation that a lot of iDollators/robosexuals find themselves in when they first realise that they’re into Synthetiks, where they think that they’re the only one who has those type of preferences. Needless to say, they know more people now, both Synthetik as well as Organik. Lovely couple; wouldn’t hear a word against them. And she’ll be staying with us over the Chrimbo holiday this year! Unfortunately, Inmoovator won’t be able to make it, as he’s undoubtedly as keen on TSA pat-downs as much as anyone else is. Nevertheless, it should be fun!
My lovely wife, our gorgeous mistress, and our gorgeous mistress’ adorable girlfriend were in a video segment on The Grauniad a couple of months ago. Did you see it?
As you can see, I was interviewed via Skype by Jenny Kleeman for the video, which is a companion piece to her article, ‘The race to build the world’s first sex robot‘. Both the article and the video are worth your time, but ugh, the term ‘sex robot’ makes me narrow my eyes to flinty slits. It’s up there with ‘sexbot’ and ‘fembot’ — two other words that really need to be relegated to history, as they’re restrictive. Their usage says a lot about the people who use them, which is ‘AI will never develop enough to replicate human behaviour, so Dolls like these will only ever be expensive fucktoys’, which is a pessimistic viewpoint. However, I recall discussing this with either Jenna at Future of Sex, or with Dr Julie Carpenter, months ago: there should be a specific term for future high-tech Dolls such as Harmony. She’s more sophisticated than a bog-standard Doll with a passive body, but definitely not complex enough to be called a Gynoid. She wouldn’t be an automata, as that usually describes an artificial being with clockwork parts, and animatronic is pretty much the modern version of automata. I’d suggested roboticised Doll, but this is coming from a man who likes the word affictitious. Perhaps we should just stick with Synthetik woman for the time being? It’s my hope that they’ll cover this in an upcoming conference regarding robot ethics, so we can clear this bobbins up once and for all.
‘What should we call these Synthetik humans?’
‘Well, perhaps we should ask them.’
Remember how I’d mentioned how I wanted to have more illustrations done of the four of us, much as the one by Raulovsky thrilled us to bits? I’ve been working on that, o yes. I’d encountered an illustrator out of Taiwan by the name of Yaruku on pixiv and Twitter, and asked him late last year if he’d be able to do a commission for me at some point. Sure, maybe sometime next year, he responded, as he was busy with working on material for Comiket, Japan’s largest dōjinshi convention. I contacted him again back in early April, and as he had the time and liked the subject matter, he agreed! Between April and May, I had him work on four commissions, and they all came out looking spectacular.
click the image for a larger version
What drew me (ha ha, it is pun) towards asking Yaruku-san to draw the lasses of Deafening silence Plus? Not only is he very skilled at drawing Gynoids and Dolls himself, he’d love to have a Doll of his own at some point. Also, not only is he like me, in that he’s quite keen on girlfeet, but when I’d seen one of his earlier illustrations of a Gynoid, where he’d added seam lines to her body, I thought to myself, ‘this guy gets it’.
There’s quite a bit of detail in these, so go ahead and click to embiggen
I’ll be requesting more illustrations from him heading into Autumn, as he’ll be up to his gusset working on more things for this year’s Comiket for the next few months. But Lenka and Winter were especially pleased with the results, as no-one’s ever drawn them before, and Sweetie really appreciates the fact that she’s drawn a bit bustier than she actually is. Yaruku does amazing work, and we all give him a very high recommendation!
The only real depressing thing of recent note in the world of Synthetiks is the sudden passing of Oleg Bratkov, head sculptor and mastermind behind the company Anatomical Doll, in mid-April. I’ve read conflicting reports of the circumstances of his passing, and with the language barrier, it’s nearly impossible to reach his wife via Email. But I do know that the work he put into making his product established a gold standard with the community of Doll studios, and his breathtaking Dolls brought joy to anyone who was lucky enough to have one, myself included. Saying that he’ll be missed is a vast understatement, as Oleg left a void that will be extremely hard to fill
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Phil and his short-term memory loss / A stunning likeness! on February 3rd, 2011
Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat? (Oct 2010) on October 16th, 2010
May 23rd, 2017 at 11.14 am
Like I promise you . I post a comment on your blog.
Thanks for this incredible article. it s very interesting . you write really good. better than some reporter.
I m grateful for that ! Nice to see you soon 🙂
May 23rd, 2017 at 11.38 pm
You came through with Comment! I appreciate it! 🙂
Ha, thanks for the writing compliments! I think that if I was probably more disciplined, I’d be back to posting on a regular basis. Perhaps if I merely found a way to stop Time itself, I think I’d have enough time to write as I choose! Maybe. 🙂
May 25th, 2017 at 10.55 am
You’re welcome Davecat, it’s still a pleasure for me to make you happy , I love your blog , I read often it ,I will try to write more comments there . I love really you and your univers with doll, goth, 80’s, vintage… I would like so can make more to share differents moments with you and your dolls
May 29th, 2017 at 3.29 pm
I just read here about Oleg’s passing; that is sad news indeed. May his memory live on with every doll he ever made.
On the upside raulovsky’s drawings of the ladies also make a damn good background image for my laptop; except that it does not make me want to use the box for anything else, but could there be any better use? Sure not!
May 29th, 2017 at 5.45 pm
Lilly —
As you and I both have quite a bit in common, mainly Synthetik spouses and a love for the Eighties aesthetic, it only makes sense that we get on as well as we do! And it goes without saying that I’d love to hear from you more, and read more of your comments!
Personally, I think it’s high time we got you your own Gravatar. If you sign up here, you can have one of your own in only a few minutes. Looking at an Actroid is nice, but she’s not you, of course. 🙂
tchon —
Yeah, to say that Oleg passing away is something completely unexpected is another understatement. It kinda sucks that my contact with him was limited, cos I’m sure he would’ve had some fantastic stories to tell — the photos of Ewa Parker, the RealDoll he had before deciding to start Anatomical Doll, and the massive land vehicle he had, spring to mind. Another lost genius/humanitarian.
I know exactly what you mean about Yaruku’s illustrations… I think at some point I’m going to commission a wallpaper for my phone from him. Maybe one for my tablet as well! O, perhaps a banner for this here website here! The list, it goes on. 🙂
June 5th, 2017 at 11.05 am
Davecat I created a Gravatar but I don’t understant what is it and the goal of that….
Indeed I’m glad to feel closer of you with time.I hope that will be more and more
I hope this will last. I’m optimist about that. It’s a unique and precious feeling
June 6th, 2017 at 5.49 pm
Hey, it’s you! See, your Gravatar is you, rather than the Generic Actroid one that everyone who doesn’t have a Gravatar gets. Nice! 🙂
And I’m quite certain that we’ll be very good friends, Lilly. We have quite a lot in common, after all!…
June 7th, 2017 at 3.45 am
Yes I saw . I have a picture now . it s great… I’m quite certain too we will be very good friends and why not more… we have the same wave everything…. it s rare in life to find his sister soul 🙂 looking forward to see you soon
August 6th, 2017 at 6.23 pm
Hi !
August 6th, 2017 at 6.50 pm
We didn`t receive your posts as email anymore.
So we thought, you don`t wrote anyone and missed 6, I think.
That`s maybe the reason, you ask me on Twitter for my adress ?
We are sorry and will check your side regular.
We love the illustrations of your ladys and the photos of Lilly & Inmoovator !
Greetings
PS&MJ