This machine uses artificial intelligence to paint its own body of work and to make its own decisions. While doing so, it listens to its environment and considers what it hears as input into the painting process. In the absence of someone or something else making sound in its presence, the machine, like many artists, listens to itself. Read more.
Electronic Countermeasures seeks to bring people of geographic proximity together through adhoc, local networks. They use a swarm of GPS enabled quadcopters to create a “flying pirate file sharing network”. Read More
Shown at SIGGRAPH in 1992, “Inter Caetera Divina” was a robot art that drew world maps over the course of the 5-day show. The title refers to the 1493 proclamation by Pope Alexander VI that split the New World between Spain and Portugal, and the maps range from the time of Columbus to World War II. The robot art feels like a non-sequitor here – how exactly do they relate to cartography or to the notion of artificial borders? Maybe the durational quality of this work is what connects the technology to the stated theme. I can’t help but feel the precision of the robot belies the provisional and subjective nature of map-making.
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Funded by NASA and developed at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, “Big Signal” was a web interface that let students experience Antarctica via Nomad – a robot prototype that searched for meteorites. The project was deployed to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, as well as to several middle and elementary schools. Coppin says that the goal of the project was to “place students in a real scientific setting by giving them access to the same data that a scientist would access.”
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James Bridle repurposes photos taken by unmanned aircraft, in the form of an Instagram account dedicated to drone’s-eye views and captions detailing U.S. drone strikes.
This is a quadcopter with a little Halloween modification. To see more of his work go here.
At the Electrical Exhibition of 1898, Nikola Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat, an invention that he patented the year prior. The boat itself was powered by several large batteries, and used a new type of radio-activated switch that Tesla had invented.
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Artist (and former STUDIO for Creative Inquiry research fellow) Frank Garvey describes “Humper” as a “robotic whore”. He says that a 20,000 volt stungun circuit is embedded in her “genitals”, and that “she knows how to sell it but she don’t come cheap”. It’s worth noting that Version 2 of the robot began at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999.
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The Tweetbots are cardboard robots that travel in straight lines. They depend on the help of pedestrians in order to get to their destination. According to creator Kacie Kinzer, not one Tweenbot was lost or damage. This points to our capacity to empathize with personified, non-living objects. I wonder if the project would have been as successful with faceless robots.
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Ars Electronica created an intricate light show using quadcopters. Their use of coordinated motion created an ethereal mood that would confuse and wow the audience.
More information here.