[Robotgroup] Art robots exhibit

[Def Egge]

Some very interesting ideas and a couple of familiar names....


http://www.kleinartgallery.org/current_exhibition.htm

Robots, once only limited to the realm of imagination, now permeate 
our daily lives, used widely for exploration of sea and space, labor 
and industry, medicine, military and police. But what happens when a 
few renegade artists, scientists and inventors start dreaming again 
of the gloriously whimsical and emotive possibilities of technology? 
We get ArtBots, marvelous machines that exist at the intersection of 
art and technology, and that create art, play music and more.

ArtBots, the international robotic talent show, comes to Philadelphia 
for the first time at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery at the 
University City Science Center. ArtBots Director, Douglas Repetto, 
has curated a selection of robotic art and art-making robots including:

Neil and Iona, a pair of fleshy living artworks who improvisationally 
interact with one another and their audience. They express themselves 
with animated facial expressions, dynamic body language and strangely 
compelling sounds.

Drawing Machine, which explores the notion of creating machinery or 
systems that create art objects on their own.

The Wildflower Meadow Glacier, an autonomous robotic sculpture that 
plants flowers and monitors local climate change and CO2 levels.

Retrospectrum, a live video robot that creates video by broadcasting, 
receiving, and re-broadcasting electrical signals through multiple 
video transmitters and cameras simultaneously.

Misericordiam, a floating robot accordion that makes sound and 
movement at will.

The String Ball Collector, a small machine made out of metal that 
travels in a circle, attempting to gather hand-wrapped string balls. 
As the machine successfully picks up certain balls, others fall out. 
Over time, patterns begin to form, marking the successes and failures 
of the machine and ideas emerge about collecting, obsession, routine, 
expectation, and disappointment.

In conjunction with the Philadelphia debut of ArtBots, local public 
school students will be creating their very own "ArtBots" that will 
be on display at the gallery. Additionally, parents, students and 
teachers will be able to visit our website, 
www.kleinartgallery.org/artbots to download instructions on how to 
make an ArtBot and display their creations in our online gallery.

RAVI-bot, created as a senior design project by mechanical 
engineering students attending the University of Pennsylvania, is a 
robotic sitar which mimics the playing techniques and improvisational 
style of the North Indian Hindustani classical stringed instrument. 
RAVI-bot will perform daily in the lobby of 3701 Market Street during 
the duration of the exhibition.

ArtBots Philadelphia 2007 is a collaboration between the Esther M. 
Klein Art Gallery and ArtBots, iPRAXIS, University of Pennsylvania's 
School of Engineering and Applied Science
and The Secondary Robotics Initiative (SRI). The exhibition was also 
made possible with the help of Hareesh Chandrupatla and The Arts and 
Business Council of Greater Philadelphia.



All the best....

Mike