Art & Science XXIV: Artbots

April 13, 2007- June 30, 2007

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.