Peak Time – Survival Research Laboratories and Industrial Music of Zagreb

Dangerous, jarring, violent, thrilling: Just some adjectives that have been used to describe the art actions of Survival Research Laboratories. Conceived in 1978 in Northern California by Mark Pauline, SRL is a group of anarchic technicians who repurpose the tools and techniques of the military-industrial complex to create socio-political satire; Pauline's large-scale performances feature custom-built robots that fight one another, set instruments ablaze, twirl flamethrowers and hurl wooden planks at 200mph (among other things). Earlier this year, this maestro of mayhem presented his "Inconsiderate Fantasies of Negative Acceleration Characterized by Sacrifices of a Non-Consensual Nature", a statement on the legitimacy of an apolitical aesthetic, at Marlborough Contemporary in Chelsea. Harley Brown caught up with the ex-military contractor to discuss outsider junk, the far-leftists of the '70s, sonic warfare and more.