Robotic art is any artwork that employs some form of

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

ic or automated technology. There are many branches of robotic art, one of which is robotic installation art, a type of

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often calle ...

that is programmed to respond to viewer interactions, by means of computers, sensors and actuators. The future behavior of such installations can therefore be altered by input from either the artist or the participant, which differentiates these artworks from other types of kinetic art.

History

Early examples of robotic art and theater existed in ancient China as far back as the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

(c. third century BC), with the development of a mechanical orchestra, and other devices such as mechanical toys. These last included flying automatons, mechanized doves and fish, angels and dragons, and automated cup-bearers, all hydraulically actuated for the amusement of emperors by engineer-craftspeople whose names have mostly been lost to history. However, Mo Ti and the artificer Yen Chin are said to have created automated chariots. By the time of the Sui dynasty (sixth century AD), a compendium was written called the ''Shai Shih t'u Ching'', or "Book of Hydraulic Excellencies". There are reports that the T'ang dynasty saw Chinese engineers building mechanical birds, otters that swallowed fish, and monks begging girls to sing. An early innovator in the Western world was

Hero of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, ''Heron ho Alexandreus'', also known as Heron of Alexandria ; 60 AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He ...

(c. 10–70 AD), who wrote "On Automatic Theaters, On Pneumatics, and on Mechanics", and is said to have built fully automated theatrical set-pieces illustrating the labors of Hercules among other wonders. In the thirteenth century AD, Badi Al-Zaman'Isma'il Al-Razzaz Al-Jazari was a Muslim inventor who devoted himself to mechanical engineering. Like Hero, he experimented with

water clock A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured. Water clocks are one of the oldest time- ...

s and other hydraulic mechanisms. Al-Jaziri's life's work culminated in a book which he called ''The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices'', completed in 1206 AD, and often known simply as ''Automata''. In Europe, also in the thirteenth century,

Villard de Honnecourt Villard de Honnecourt (''Wilars dehonecort'', ''Vilars de Honecourt'') was a 13th-century artist from Picardy in northern France. He is known to history only through a surviving portfolio or "sketchbook" containing about 250 drawings and designs ...

is known to have built mechanical angels for the French court, and in the fifteenth century Johannes Muller built both a working mechanical eagle and a fly. The Prague Astronomical Clock, in Prague's

Old Town Square Old Town Square ( cs, Staroměstské náměstí or colloquially ) is a historic square in the Old Town quarter of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It is located between Wenceslas Square and Charles Bridge. Buildings The square ...

, features four

animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy ...

figures representing Vanity, Greed, Death, and Entertainment. The clock was built in 1410, and the first of the figures, Death, was probably added in 1490. In the 15th-16th century,

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...

invented several theatrical automata, including a lion which walked onstage and delivered flowers from its breast, and a moving suit of armour. The magician Isaac Fawkes, in 1722, created a clock that "played a variety of tunes on the organ, flute and flangolet with birds whistling and singing". He also had a mechanism called the "Temple of the Arts", which featured mechanical musicians, ships and ducks. Fawkes also created a robotic apple tree that would grow, bloom, and produce fruit before the eyes of an unsuspecting audience. This tree was the inspiration for the orange tree illusion in the film '' The Illusionist''. In the same period, a Swiss watchmaker called

Pierre Jaquet-Droz Pierre Jaquet-Droz (; 1721–1790) was a watchmaker of the late eighteenth century. He was born on 28 July 1721 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which was then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. He lived in Paris, London, ...

made some highly sophisticated automotas, including "The Writer" (made of 6,000 pieces), "The Musician" (2,500 pieces) and "The Draughtsman" (2,000 pieces). These devices are mechanical

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. ...

s and can still be seen in working condition at the Art and History Museum in

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, , ; german: Neuenburg) is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel, situated on the shoreline of Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, ...

, Switzerland. Also surviving to this day is a mechanical theatre that was constructed in the gardens of Hellbrun (near

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

), Austria, from 1748 to 1752. Within a cross-section of an 18th-century palace, 141 hydraulically operated figures, representing people from all walks of life, can be seen going about their daily activities. Advances in engineering created new possibilities for robotic art. In 1893, Prof. George Moore created "The Steam Man", a humanoid mechanism powered by a boiler, which he exhibited in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Supported by a horizontal bar attached to a vertical post, it was capable of walking in a circle at a speed of four or five miles an hour; reportedly, it could not be held back by two men. In 1898, the physicist and engineer

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
'' remote-controlled boat in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...

, making use of a specially built indoor pond. This device has been identified as the world's first radio-controlled vessel. Tesla described it as having "a borrowed mind", and envisioned a fleet of fifty or a hundred submarines, or any other kind of vehicle, under the command of one or several operators. Robotics have now become a mode of expression for artists confronting fundamental issues and contradictions in our advanced industrial culture.

Performance art

Robotic performance art refers to the presentation of theatrical performances in which most, if not all, of the "action" is executed by robots rather than by people. An early robotic artist was

Edward Ihnatowicz Edward Ihnatowicz (born 14 February 1926, Chełm – died 1988, London) was a Polish cybernetic art sculptor active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His sculptures explored the interaction between his robotic works and the audience. He was a pio ...

, whose creation, the

Senster The Senster was a work of robotic art created by Edward Ihnatowicz. It was commissioned by Philips to be exhibited in the Evoluon, in Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of N ...

, was exhibited in the Netherlands from 1970 to 1974. It employed sensors and hydraulics which reacted to the sound and movements of the people nearby. Shows of this sort are sometimes large and elaborate productions. The Swiss sculptor

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art ...

(1925–1991) created kinetic sculptures usually made from industrial junk. They were hallucinatory and fabulous machines which performed unpredictably until they inevitably met a tragic fate, which was often to self-destruct. His "Homage to New York", a and mechanism made of dismantled bikes and musical instruments, among other things, was displayed in 1960 in the sculpture garden of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

, New York, where it dramatically caught fire and self-destructed before a crowd of onlookers. Due in part to the many variables and complications associated with the production of performances of this kind, they have historically been just as likely to be "underground" affairs as officially sanctioned events. San Francisco's

Survival Research Laboratories Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an American performance art group that pioneered the genre of large-scale machine performance. Founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline, the group is known in particular for their performances where custom-built mac ...

is considered to be the pioneer of the "spectacle" form of underground robotic art. Two San Francisco-based performance ensembles, Frank Garvey's "

Omnicircus The Omnicircus was a theater, gallery and performance art space that was established in 1992 by Frank Garvey in San Francisco, California. Omnicircus was home to Garvey’s ensemble as well as being an installation of his films, paintings, sculpt ...

" and Chico MacMurtrie's "Amorphic Robot Works", were among the first expressions of integrated robotic music-theatrical performance, with human actors, dancers and musicians joining the mechanical performers. The robotic ensemble of the "OmniCircus" is a robot red-light district, a life-sized troupe of mechanical beggars, hookers, junkies and street-preachers who appear in OmniCircus stage shows and movies and engage in cyborg guerilla theater on the city streets. The San Francisco Bay Area has been the home and/or origin of many other mechanical performance ensembles and artists, including Ken Rinaldo's large scale robotic art installations, Matt Heckert's Mechanical Sound Orchestra,

Kal Spelletich Kal Spelletich ( ) is an American contemporary artist. A pioneer of San Francisco's machine art scene, he hand builds complex machines and robots. Current work, in 2018, includes building functional artificial robotic organs as a residence of t ...

‘s Seemen, Carl Pisaturo, and Alan Rath, making the SF Bay Area a nexus of robotic art. Pittsburgh has since the 1980's been an ongoing hub of performative robotic art-making. A steady series of robotic artists have had their origins in the Pittsburgh robotic art community or significantly developed their craft there. This includes Ken Goldberg, Ian Ingram, and

Simon Penny Simon Graeme Penny (born 19 October 1955) is an Australian artist, theorist, curator and teacher in the fields of digital cultural practices, embodied interaction and interactive art. Early life Penny was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1955. ...

who respectively developed "The Telegarden" (1995-2004), "On Beyond Duckling" (2004-2005), and Petit Mal (1989-2005) while in Pittsburgh. The confluence of an arts community that spans world famous institutions to bootstrapped collectives and the

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Robotics Institute underpins Pittsburgh's outsized role in robotic arts. David Karave's robotics and fire artwork, Home Automation, is an animatronic theatre performance, with themes of propaganda and peace. This robotic artwork was created over 3 years, by more than 30 artists in the US and Canada. The project has toured across the United States, and was shown at the Tennessee Bonnaroo festival with The Art of Such N Such. In 'Home Automation' a family of lifesize aluminum animatronic crash test dummies musically self-destruct, as they watch color code threat alerts on their projected home TV. The robot family's heads finally ignite into circuit-breaking flames. The German artist group RobotLab works with industrial KUKA robots in public spaces. It explores the relationship between machine and human by means of installations and performances. One of the group's installations is "Juke Bots", in which two robot arms create music by manipulating records on a turntable. Captured! by Robots is a touring band led by Jay Vance, along with several animatronic bandmates. Vance's music-making robots were created via pneumatic actuation and 3 integrated computer systems. The ultimate goal, Vance states "is to create a live experience that blurs the line between the audience and his hard-rockin', sailor-talkin' automatons".

Robotic art exhibitions

Since 2002,

ArtBots ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show is an international robot talent show held in New York City and other cities. It is sponsored by a variety of arts organizations, produced by an army of volunteers, and is directed and curated by dorkbot founder, ...

has put on robotic art exhibitions featuring the work of robotics artists from around the world. Participants in each show are selected from responses to an open call for works; works are selected to represent a broad and inclusive cross-section of the tremendous range of creative art and robotics activity. In 2004, the European Capital of Culture Lille 2004 presented ''Robots!'', an exhibition featuring a multitude of robots, anthropomorphs, zoomorphs, phytomorphs, or amorphs from international artists such as Chico MacMurtrie
Dead Chickens
with their robotic monsters, Theo Jansen and his giant powered by wind sculptures, as well as robots from various researchers working at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT) and at the Humanoid Robotics Institute of

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

in Tokyo. In 2008, a citywide exhibition of ten large-scale, outdoor robotic artworks called "BigBots" was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The exhibition included work at

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...

, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbu ...

, and the Mattress Factory museum of installation art and pieces by

Golan Levin Golan ( he, גּוֹלָן ''Gōlān''; ar, جولان ' or ') is the name of a biblical town later known from the works of Josephus (first century CE) and Eusebius (''Onomasticon'', early 4th century CE). Archaeologists localize the biblical ci ...

, Grisha Coleman, Matt Barton and Jacob Ciocci, Ian Ingram, and Osman Khan. One of the pieces, "Green Roof Roller Coaster," a robotic roller-coaster for plants by Gregory Witt and Joey Hays that let the plants decide when they wanted to go for a ride, remains on the roof of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh to this day. An exhibition titled "Robotic Art" held at the

Cité des sciences et de l'industrie The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie ("City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI) or simply CSI is the biggest science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultur ...

in Paris in 2014–2015. Monumental robotic artworks were presented, including

Jean Michel Bruyère Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

's ''Le Chemin de Damastès'', a 50 m kinetic sculpture composed by 21 computer-animated hospital-type beds, the Chico MacMurtrie's ''Totemobile'', a fullscale Citroën DS which transformed in a few minutes to an 18-meter-high totem, and two artworks by Shiro Takatani and

Christian Partos Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ (title), Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive ...

specially conceived for the 3D Water Matrix, a robotic interface designed to create and display animated and three-dimensional liquid.

Le Grand Palais The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais (English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arro ...

in Paris organised an exhibition ‘’Artists & Robots", featuring artworks created by more than forty artists with help of robots in 2018. Also, in 2018, the first Robotic Art exhibit was presented at a major robotics research conference acknowledging the increasing influence of robotic art on the technical developments of robotics. A fully curated exhibition of eight robotic artworks by prominent artists and roboticists was later presented in the 2019 edition of the same

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

ICRA conference

Robotics artists

This is a list of contemporary robotics artists. *

Max Dean Max Dean is the name of: *Max Dean (artist) Max Dean (born June 29, 1949) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist. Life Dean was born June 29, 1949, in Leeds, England. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1952, settling in Vancouver. Work ...

* Maywa Denki * Ken Feingold * Flaming Lotus Girls *Arthur Ganson *Frank Garvey &

* Ken Goldberg *

Genco Gulan Genco Gulan ( (born 1969 in Turkey) is a contemporary conceptual artist and theorist, who lives and works in Istanbul. His transmedia contextual work involves painting, found objects, new media, drawings, sculpture, photography, performance and ...

Nemo Gould Nemo Gould (born October 3, 1975) is an American artist and sculptor known widely for his kinetic found-object sculpture as well as two-dimensional graphic work. Much of his work presents whimsical aluminum and wooden robotic and sci-fi creatures of ...

* Garnet Hertz * Ian Ingram * Shun Ito * Theo Jansen * Chico MacMurtrie *

Leonel Moura Leonel Moura (born December 26, 1948 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a conceptual artist whose work shifted in the late 1990s from photo based work to Artificial Intelligence and Robotic art. Since then he has produced several Painting Robots and the Robo ...

Zaven Paré Zaven Paré is a French new media artist born in 1961. Life Painter for state manufacture of tapestry of Beauvais in 1987, he worked for the Manufacture des Gobelins N.I.M.E.S. project on the replacement of Chevreul's cabinet. He became painter ...

* Mark Pauline *

Eric Paulos Eric Paulos is an American computer scientist, artist (working in new media art), and inventor, best known for his early work on internet robotic teleoperation and is considered a founder of the field of Urban Computing, coining the term "ur ...

* Ken Rinaldo * Christian Ristow * Stelarc *

Pindar Van Arman Pindar Van Arman is an American artist and roboticist based in Washington, D.C. His art focuses on designing painting robots that explore the differences between human and computational creativity. Since his first system in 2005, he has built m ...

Caren, Allie (6 December 2015)
"You Can Give a Robot a Paintbrush, but does it Create Art?"
''NPR''. Retrieved 25 October 2017. *

Jeff Weber Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form ( hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Towne ...

Norman White Norman White (born January 7, 1938, San Antonio Texas) Canadian New Media artist considered to be a pioneer in the use of electronic technology and robotics in art. Life White was born in San Antonio Texas in 1938. He grew up in and around Bosto ...

References

External links

* Kac, Eduardo (15 April 2006)
"Robotic Art Chronology"
NeMe. * Official website of the firs
International Workshop on Robotics and Art
at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation - ICRA2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Robotic Art Visual arts media