ITP Thesis Week 2009
Monday, May 4 - Friday, May 8

Art Robotica

Oscar Torres

Art generated by the collaboration of autonomous painting machines and artists that capture subject matter that appeals to the senses or emotions.

Art Robotica is a term I will use to describe the body of work created by the collaboration of "ArtBot" and artist. ArtBots are Autonomous Machines that paint or draw on a canvas, sheet of paper or a surface of some kind. Systems that utilizes this concept are currently used widely to create generative or algorithmic art. The ArtBots I am creating, will walk around the surface of a canvas and paint a composition predetermined by the image or video they use as reference. At first glance it will seem that they are painting a random pattern. As time passes by and they lay more paint down, it will be apparent that they are making a figurative painting. I will be making additions to the work since I want the final piece to encapsulate the ideology of the composition in human terms. I look to create paintings with the assistance of machines. I aim to make the machines seem alive. The ArtBots will move and react upon the natural elements. The significance of the work that results from this collaboration is an important milestone in art. It reflects our new codependency and symbiotic relationship with machines. ArtBots are, in essence, collaborators rather than just new tools.

I consider my self an artist who is very knowledgeable of mathematics and sciences. This led me to the idea of creating machines that would help me paint. In an ideal situation I would build the robots from scratch to optimize the amount of control over the robot's movement. Due to time constraints, I will be hacking existing mechanisms and adding additional technology to achieve the desired result. Previous projects that relate include "Drawing Hexbug" which is a hacked prefabricated walking toy that draws with a marker. Jackoon the painting Machine is a project I build for the Drawing Machines class thought by David Nolen. Jackoon was the main inspiration to pursue further research and development of the painting machine collaborator concept.

Art Lovers and the General Population