<figcaption>A robot sculpts a recreation of the
Ancient Greek work Laocoon and his Sons, which was exhibited in Linz last year. Ars Electronica/Flickr, CC
BY-NC-ND</figcaption></figure>
Jared Donovan, Queensland
University of Technology; Glenda Amayo Caldwell, Queensland
University of Technology, and Jonathan Roberts, Queensland
University of Technology
Two weeks ago, in an industrial shed in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, a team of engineers installed a
large, orange robot arm. It was a standard industrial robot arm, but it was not going to be used for
standard purposes. The robot’s job would be to carve moulds for the casting of large-scale, metal
sculptures. It is being installed by Urban Art Projects, a company
that specialises in the manufacture of sculpture and custom architectural facades.
Sculpture might not be the first thing that springs to mind if someone mentions robotics. We hear again and
again that robots are set to change the way we drive our
cars, grow
our food, and perform
surgery. But robots are changing art too.
There is, in fact, an extremely long history of robots being used in the arts. The creation of automata,
mechanical devices driven by cogs, goes back centuries. These “robots” found their greatest expression in
the incredible feats of mechanised Karakuri
puppets in Japan and the clockwork automata of
Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The arts actually invented the name “robot”. The first use of the word recorded anywhere in the world was
from a 1920 Czech play that featured humanoid style
automatons, played by human actors.
In the mid-20th century, “cybernetic artists” began to work with electronic robots. Often these were
produced as art objects themselves, similar to the older tradition of automatons. The polish artist Edward
Ihnatowicz created The Senster, an
electromechanical sculpture that could move and respond to people around it in a surprisingly lifelike
manner.
<figcaption>
Cybernetic sculptor Edward Ihnatowicz built the Senster – a 15 ft long, hydraulic
robot – for Philips. It was on permanent display at the Evoluon, in Eindhoven in
1970.</figcaption></figure>
Fast forwarding to our present moment, the Italian artist Quayola last year exhibited a reproduction of an ancient Greek sculpture, Laocoon
and his Sons, which had been carved from polystyrene by a robot. The robot was deliberately instructed
to leave the sculpture unfinished.
Artists’ assistants
Artists have already done a lot with robots, but it’s safe to say that there’s more to come. Robots could
have a big impact on the way artists work, especially by helping them produce sculptural art. Rather than
being art, these robots are more of a tool for the artist. In architecture, robots are already used for 3D printing houses, laying bricks, and cutting, shaping and moulding all manner of forms.
But why use robots to make sculpture?
Art (especially sculpture) can be dangerous and expensive to produce. It is essentially a manufacturing
process that relies on the input of many highly skilled artisans and fabricators to cast metals, weld,
grind, polish and patina a final piece. If robots can help even with part of this process and still maintain
the handmade quality, then that artwork could be produced at a more affordable price.
Robots could be used to quickly rough out a sculptural form that is then refined by the human artist. Or a
human artist could do the bulk of the work and then leave it to the robot to finish the fine surface detail.
This process could include programming of robots to leave the “mark” of the artist.
Robots will also allow artists to work at a physical scale much larger than their own bodies. Often, large
public artworks are first produced as small scale models, or digital files that need to be translated into
much larger finished works. By allowing artists to work at scale, robots will allow a smoother transition
from working out preliminary ideas on miniature models through to finished works while maintaining the
integrity of the artists’ input.
There are also possibilities to support artists working together across great distances. Robots, connected
via the internet, could provide a way to do “sculptural conference calls” and allow collaborations between
artists who would not otherwise get a chance to work together. This could be extended to aid the process of
learning practical
sculpting skills. The robot could provide a way to guide the untrained hand of novice users based on
the expertise of a master artist.
Makerspaces, shared spaces for creating
art, could also benefit from having robots smart and capable enough to create art. This way, members of the
public could get easier access to these technologies and use them to realise their own artistic creations.
New kinds of robots
Robots as we know them still have a long way to go before artists will really be able to make widespread
use of them and before a robot can produce something on its own that comes close to the quality of a human
handmade object.
Fortunately, recent developments suggest robots are about to become much more adaptable and useful. In
surgery, robotic assistants are now being routinely used by surgeons to carry out procedures that would not
be possible or are extremely difficult to perform by hand.
<figcaption>An industrial robot arm used for
sculpture. Ars Electronica, CC
BY-NC-ND</figcaption></figure>
Industrial robots can move with great accuracy, but they rely on pre-programmed movement paths. They
usually can’t see what they are working on or adjust their movements in real time in the way that a human
sculptor would. This lack of awareness makes robots dangerous to work around. Robots typically require
highly controlled environments with expensive safety systems – not the kinds of environments you would find
in most artists’ studios or busy makerspaces.
However research into collaborative
robotics is set to make robots safe enough that people could even dance
with them. Artists will need much more natural and intuitive ways of interacting and controlling the
robot than we currently have available.
No matter what kind of robots we end up developing, one thing is certain. Artists have always employed new
technologies in creative ways, to give us new kinds of art and to ask new questions about ourselves. That’s
reason enough to continue to explore the intersections of robotics and art. Jared Donovan, Senior Lecturer in
Interaction Design, Queensland
University of Technology; Glenda Amayo Caldwell, Senior
Lecturer in Architecture, Queensland
University of Technology, and Jonathan Roberts, Professor in
Robotics, Queensland
University of Technology
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the
original
article.
<figcaption>A robot sculpts a recreation of the
Ancient Greek work Laocoon and his Sons, which was exhibited in Linz last year.
<figcaption>An industrial robot arm used for
sculpture.