Robots can be scary things, even - and especially - beyond the realm of science fiction.
When provocative American artist Jordan Wolfson was preparing one of his works to travel all the way to Australia, it wasn't a matter of just packing it into a crate.
And, when Body Sculpture arrived at its new home at the National Gallery of Australia, which had acquired it for a cool $6.6 million, unpacking the work wasn't quite the main event it usually is when new works arrive.
While most major art galleries tend to be quiet places, there's often a buzz behind the scenes that most people will never see.
From carpenters to robotic and IT specialists, there are people doing jobs you don't automatically associate with what you're seeing in the official gallery spaces.
And a growing number of them are women, especially when it comes to robotics and animatronics.
For Body Sculpture, an entirely separate team was required to bring it to life once it arrived.
The team was led by Sally Brand, senior project manager for complex artistic commissions - a realm of art that's developing at a rapid pace as the parameters around artistic definitions shift and morph.
Body Sculpture features two robots - a factory-style mechanical arm, and a metal box with humanoid arms and hands, held captive by a chain.
It's a disconcerting work that comes with a content warning and appears to lose control - a kind of statement on the darkness within the human condition.
Paradoxically, putting it together involved plenty of planning, control and human intervention - of the tech-savvy variety.
Brand, who has a background in both science and art history, says the art world is appealing to more than just artists and curators.
"Artists and scientists are particularly curious people in the world," she said.
"You have to be curious to work in the arts, and you have to be curious to work in STEM.
"But I do love that idea of STEAM, which is the STEM with art ... because you just have to be creative. It's all complex problem-solving."
She had previously worked with Patricia Piccinini after the gallery acquired her renowned Skywhale hot air balloon, and commissioned a companion piece, Skywhalepapa.
Like Wolfson, Piccinini requires large, multi-skilled teams to realise her vision.
"We took a lot of the learnings of when it's an artwork as well a lot of other things into this work on the robot, because it is a work of art," Brand said.
"People are running to meet with the technology and regulation that sits around robotics, but also wanting to encourage a lot of creativity in that place as well. It's really fascinating."
The gallery's chief information officer Jade Carson, who works with the gallery's behind-the-scenes technology infrastructure, said the field for women who want to work in tech was ever-widening.
"People often underestimate the diversity of roles available in technology," she said.
"Wolfson's work and the women at the NGA who have helped bring it to life, shows how technology roles have evolved.
"We want people to see that you can align your passion and creativity with your work and that digital works of art are increasing."
She's leading a Women in ICT panel discussion at the gallery on May 30 celebrating the intersection of art and technology, centring around Wolfson's Body Sculpture, and the various skills that are required to bring a work like this to life.
"If you're a woman in tech, or a girl coming through school, and you want to get into tech, or you want to do art, you can do both," she says.
- When Art and Technology Collide, May 30 at the National Gallery of Australia. wic.org.au
