From the Telegraph, London (
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/15/nrobot15.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/06/15/ixnewstop.html):
Litter bins that kept crashing into things
By David Sapsted
(Filed: 15/06/2005)
A £110,000 art project involving moving benches and roaming litter bins has had to be shut down because of repeated crashes.
The solar-powered, robotic street furniture was supposed to keep on the move outside the Junction music venue in Cambridge for 24 hours a day, with sensors supposed to prevent collisions.
But the display, part-funded by the Arts Council and National Lottery, was called off after only three hours after the benches and bins kept smashing into each other, along with anything else in the vicinity.
"On the launch day they were showing signs of some anti-social behaviour and kept on being intimate with the bike racks and with each other," said Gordon Glass, a spokesman for the Junction. "The artists felt there was no other option but to take them away,"
The five metal bins, which do not take rubbish, and the four wooden benches, which are supposed to stop for people to sit down on, are now back in the hands of their creators, Greyworld, a London-based artistic collective.
It is hoped that they can sort out the steering problems and the machines be re-released on the site in the old Cattle Market within a fortnight.
