The Robot Project

By Anna Broell Bresnick and Caterina Verde

Two artists making a film about two artists who made films

Starring Frank and Joan Gardner

Film still from The Fisherman's Wife

Frank, Joan and The Robot Project, is meant to introduce the making of the film “The Robot Project” to the many friends of Frank and Joan Gardner, as well as to the much larger audience of present and future artists/film makers, teachers of film history, and as all those folks who might want to watch some innovative, funny, scary, serious, stop motion films. Although Joan and Frank were mainly visual artists, the 60’s and 70’s presented them with an historical moment in which a new wave of experimentation in film exploded. They wanted to be part of that excitement, and the films were made. Eight of them were recently bought by the Museum of Modern Art.

Behind every story is another story. This one is not only about the making and recent selling of the films to MoMA, but about some of the events in Frank and Joan’s life over the last two years that proved the making of the upcoming film, “The Robot Project” essential.

The Robot Project

During the late sixties and early seventies the artists/filmmakers, Frank (then a physicist at a Yale Univ. lab/now an artist) and Joan Gardner (visual artist, Chicago Art Institute) made a number of experimental films using stop motion animation. These films were shown at film festivals around the country and received numerous awards. The collaborative effort of creating “The Robot” was their crowning achievement. It was the longest (18 minutes), took the longest to make (8 months) and used countless, crazy ideas for visual and sound effects – there was the microscope cannon (laboratory stuff), etc, the dry ice and psycho-chemical interactions of metals at extreme cold temperatures for eerie sound making ideas, shadow effects from films like “M” and endless other experimentations with lighting and stop motion animation. Frank and Joan conceived and worked out the ideas for “The Robot” and the other seven films over several years and brought them to life for our pleasure.

Frank Gardner

Joan Gardner

Fast-forward and much art making later; On April 7, 1998, Frank started negotiations with the Museum of Modern/Art Department of Film for the purchase of “The Robot”, and in this last year and a half The Museum, in the process of buying “The Robot”, also bought the seven other completed films – Such a great, great success for Frank and Joan, late in life.

Films bought by MoMA

The Guest, 1968 with Joan, shot by Frank

Times Eight, 1968 with Joan, shot by Frank

The Robot, 1969 constructed and shot by Frank and Joan

Everybody And A Chicken, 1970 with Joan, shot by Frank

Young Girl At A Window, 1972 shot by Frank

The Fisherman’s Wife, 1972 with Joan and Frank, shot by Frank

Jig Jag, 1972 created and shot by Joan

End Line 1972 by Frank

"This is wonderful news and I am so pleased that after nearly two years, the conclusion of this endeavor is positive! I am so thrilled with this collection and that MoMA is now the caretaker of the Gardner films.”

- Anne Morra, Associate Curator, The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film.

The Other Story

However, at the same time, because of medical issues, Joan and Frank both ended up essentially homeless, penniless and in a rehabilitation center/pseudo nursing home facility.” Their art, which is still in their old studio, was declared worthless and both studio and art are now the property of someone else. The many boxes of personal stuff (books, photos, letters, etc.) were also put into the studio and are now inaccessible for them. Only copies of the eight films Joan and Frank made are still in their possession. They ran out of Medicare, insurance and savings and could not return to their assisted living apartment. All was lost, the entire safety net that was meant to keep the latter part of their live creative and productive and safe.

Places they lived and are living in

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