What is…robotic art? Art Radar explains

**As part of our “What is…?” series, Art Radar introduces the basics of robotic art.**

Art Radar highlights the basics of robotic art, with a brief history of the medium, its various manifestations, a selection of key robotic artists in Asia, and seminal exhibitions, festivals and biennales of robotic art in Asia and worldwide.

Eric Siu, ‘Touchy’, 2013. Image courtesy the artist.

What is Robotic Art?

Robotic art is a type of art that makes use of robotics or machine and automated technology, coupled with computer technology and sensors. Robotic art generally falls under the broader umbrella of kinetic art, which includes art that uses mechanical elements, such as motors, machines and electrically powered systems, but doesn’t necessarily include a computer programme.

With the rise in electronic media and technology in art, robotics has become a popular medium of experimentation. Robotic art can be traced back through history to the first hydraulic sculptures while the genesis of contemporary robotic art can be pinpointed to the 1960s.

Samson Young, ‘I am thinking in a room, different from the one you are hearing in now (homage to Alvin Lucier)’, 2011, sound performance. Image courtesy the artist.

Robotic art: A brief history

According to academic Joseph Needham (PDF download), during the Han Dynasty period in ancient China, robotic art existed in its earliest form. This included mechanical orchestras and toys and flying automatons such as dragons and fishes which moved with hydraulic power. Engineers like Mozi and Lu Ban built wooden automated artificial birds that could fly, while artificer Yan Shi of the Zhou Dynasty apparently built a human-shaped automaton. By the Sui Dynasty, there were official accounts in a compendium, entitled Book of Hydraulic Excellencies.

Automata were not exclusive to Chinese early technological discoveries but were also part of developments in ancient Greece and Ptolemaic Egypt. Greek engineer Ctesibius (c. 270 BC) “applied a knowledge of pneumatics and hydraulics to produce the first organ and water clocks with moving figures.” Hero of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician and inventor, he created numerous user-configurable automated devices. In Renaissance Europe, Leonardo Da Vinci was drawing, planning and creating a variety of automated machines, and even made detailed drawings of a mechanical knight, known as Leonardo’s Robot.

Samson Young, ‘The Signal Path’, (Homage to Alvin Lucier) 2011. Image courtesy the artist.

Early robotic art

Robotics began to be applied to art around the 1960s with the first computers and software programmes. This development was directly related to kinetic art’s contribution in the 1950s to 1960s towards freeing sculpture from its static dimension and reintroducing the machine in the artistic debate.

French artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) was a pioneer of meta-mechanics or kinetic art in the Dada tradition, and created a self-destroying sculpture entitled Homage to New York (1960). Nicolas Schöffer’s kinetic work CYSP 1 (Cybernetic Spatiodynamic Sculpture) (1958) was one of the first interactive artworks that used sensors and electronic analogue components, providing a bridge between kinetic and robotic art.

Nam June Paik, ‘Hacker Newbie’, 1994, mixed media sculpture (5TV cabinet, 2 Sony 5TV model 5SLA, 2 telephones, 1 radio, 2 chasis, 1 Paik laser disk, 1 laser disk player), 110 x 69 x 157 cm. Image courtesy Christie’s.

In his essay “Origin and Development of Robotic Art” (PDF download), published in a special issue on Electronic Art of Art Journal (1997), artist and professor of Art and Technology Eduardo Kac pinpoints the origins and development of robotic art by examining three pivotal artworks from the 1960s:

Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe’s Robot K-456 (1964)
Tom Shannon’s Squat (1966)
Edward Ihnatowicz’s The Senster (1969-1970)

Each of the three artists he talks about take a variant direction of robotic art: electronic creatures (“robotic art”), a combination of organic and electronic (“cybernetic art”) or the remote projection of a human subject onto a telerobot (“telepresence art”). These aspects also merge together to create hybrid works.

Annie Wan, ‘Where’s the Chicken?’, at Art Square of the Salisbury Garden Completion Ceremony. Image courtesy the artist.

Types (and examples) of robotic art

Kac recognises that artists interested in robotics cannot ignore mythological, literary or industrial definitions of robots, but it is also true that these definitions do not directly apply to any robotic artwork. He maintains that

Each artist explores robotics in particular ways, developing strategies that often hybridise robots with other media, systems, contexts and life forms.

Robotic art can take the form of installations, performance and sculpture, as well as interactive devices.

Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe’s Robot K-456 (1964) is a 20-channel remote-controlled anthropomorphic robot, which needed five people to make it move. Through a radio speaker in its mouth, it played a recording of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address and excreted beans. The artists were reflecting on the role of robotics in the economy, the differences between robotics in art and industry and the potential problems that arise when technologies collide outside human control.

American artist and inventor Tom Shannon’s Squat (1966) was a pioneering work of cybernetic sculpture, which “enabled the electric potential of the human body to trigger an organic switch”, thereby amplifying the body’s electricity through tactile interaction to turn on the robotic sculpture.

Edward Ihnatowicz used the interaction of voice and proximity of the viewer to prompt a responsive behaviour in his work: The Senster (1970) was the first computer-controlled robotic artwork.

Australian performance artist Stelarc took robotics to a personal level, creating a sort of cyborg of himself by installing artificial components onto his own body. He installed a Third Hand on his right arm, exploring the possibility of amplifying the reach of the human body by wiring it to electronic devices and telecommunications systems. This was heightened when he installed The Third Ear onto his arm with the aim of allowing people all over the world to listen to his own environment.

Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal created 3rdi, another type of artificial implant on a human body (his own), by installing a camera to the back of his head through which viewers could see his surroundings.

In Hong Kong artist Eric Siu’s work Touchy, rather than installing an intrusive artificial element, Siu has created a device that can be applied to the human body, much like a mask or a hat but which responds and works through the interaction of both the wearer and the viewer.

Stelarc, ‘Ear On Arm’, 2006-2013, Medpor scaffold, tissue in-growth, vascularisation, dimensions variable. Image courtesy NTMoFA.

Influential robotic artists: A selection

Developments in robotic art have been especially popular in Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, where a variety of artists are exploring the myriad possibilities of electronic media and human interaction. Among the most influential artists are:

Eric Siu (Hong Kong) – Siu is a new media artist working with device art, interactive art, kinetics, installation, video and animation.

Samson Young (Hong Kong) – Young is a composer, sound and new media artist who creates experimental artworks that bridge technology, human life and art.

Akibo Lee (Taiwan) – Lee engages with digital art and robotics and is the creator of robots for a diverse audience, including commercial branding, visual art, performing art and public art.

Dimension + (Taiwan, Hong Kong) – the artist duo Escher Tsai and Keith Lam create work that merges art and technology, focusing on cross-disciplinary interactive design and enhancing the audience’s experience with interaction.

Xia Hang (China) – Hang has created a series of alien-like sculptures complete with mechanisms that move, stretch and change form with the interaction of the audience.

Annie Wan (Hong Kong) – Wan is a new media artist whose works mostly focus on locative media, embedded electronics and network-based systems, such as Where’s the Chicken, a locative robotics public artwork.

Wu Xiaofei (China) – Wu focuses on creating contraptions and kinetic installations that require the interaction of the public and stimulate their curiosity.

Shyu Ruey-Shiann (Taiwan) – Shyu creates mechanical, kinetic and robotic artworks that convey his ideas and feelings towards life, memories and issues concerning the environment, politics and society.

Shih Chieh Huang (Taiwan) – Huang focuses on the exploration of unusual evolutionary adaptations undertaken by creatures that reside in inhospitable conditions, creating installations populated by organic living things made of found objects.

Nam June Paik (Korea) – He is considered the founder of video art and also created robotic artworks in collaboration with artist and engineer Shuya Abe (Japan). Asia Society is holding a survey exhibition of his pioneering oeuvre until 4 January 2015.

Momoyo Torimitsu (Japan) – Inspired by the hypocritical imagery of corporate culture and media sterotypes, Torimitsu created Miyata Jiro (1994), a life-like robot of a stereotypical “salaryman”.

Kogoro Kurata (Japan) – Kurata designed and created the Kuratas, rideable user-operated robots built by Suidobashi Heavy Industry.

Stelarc (Australia) – Stelarc is a performance artist who focuses on extending the physical and sensory capabilities of the human body.

Wafaa Bilal (Iraq) – Bilal is known internationally for his online performative and interactive works that provoke dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics.

Aaron Taylor Kuffner (United States) – Kuffner is a conceptual artist who recently created The Gamelatron Bunga Kota, a robotically generated sound installation based on traditional Indonesian gamelan music.

Mari Velonaki (Australia) – Velonaki has worked as an artist in the field of interactive media since 1995 and is co-founder of the Centre for Social Robotics (CSR) at the University of Sydney.

Electric Circus (Netherlands) – The artist duo created Dirk the Homeless Robot, a life-sized, interactive puppet controlled remotely by the artists.

Electric Circus, ‘Dirk the Homeless Robot’, 2004, dimensions variable, mixed media. Image courtesy NTMoFA.

Robotic art exhibitions and events in Asia and beyond: A selection

Robot Dreams – Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland | 9 June – 12 September 2010
ArtBots – various locations | last edition, 2011
Giant Robot Biennale – Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles | last edition, 23 September 2012 – 20 January 2013
Experimenta’s International Biennial of Media Art – Melbourne, Australia | last edition, 2012
WRO – International Media Art Biennale - Wroclaw, Poland | last edition, 2005
transmediale/art&digitalculture - Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin | annually, 2015 edition 20 January – 1 February 2015
Ars Electronica - Linz | annually, 2014 edition: 4 – 8 September
Robotic Art – Paris | 8 April 2014 – 4 January 2015
Cyberfest International Media Arts Festival – St. Petersburg | annually
TEA/Super Connect–2013 International Techno Art Exhibition – Taipei, Taiwan | 10 August – 27 October 2013

C. A. Xuan Mai Ardia

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Indonesian robot art strikes New York – the Gamelatron Project – June 2013 – the rising trend in Asian art exploring the use of robotics comes to New York, with the new installation “The Gamelatron Bunga Kota” by conceptual artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner
Science, technology and visual art: Artists in a hybrid world – November 2011 – an exhibition at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts brought together international artists working with biology, medicine, computer science and robotics to create their works
Computer curators: Artificial intelligence learns art history – October 2012 – two computer scientists at Lawrence Technological University recently published the results of an experimental computer programme that can classify paintings according to their historical period or movement

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