Art in the age of ones and zeros: Robot art

Art has always been fundamentally intertwined with technology. New techniques and materials have constantly allowed artists to innovate and create new types of works. In this series we look at the impact of digital technologies on art and how artists are creating entirely novel forms of art using these modern tools. We’ve previously examined the fields of “datamoshing”, ASCII art, BioArt, Minecraft Art and Internet Art. In this instalment we examine a fascinating world where scientists are teaching robots how to paint works of art.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Art in the age of ones and zeros: Robot art

Art has always been fundamentally intertwined with technology. New techniques and materials have constantly allowed artists to innovate and create new types of works. In this series we look at the impact of digital technologies on art and how artists are creating entirely novel forms of art using these modern tools. We’ve previously examined the fields of “datamoshing”, ASCII art, BioArt, Minecraft Art and Internet Art. In this instalment we examine a fascinating world where scientists are teaching robots how to paint works of art.

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interesting.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Art in the age of ones and zeros: Robot art

Art has always been fundamentally intertwined with technology. New techniques and materials have constantly allowed artists to innovate and create new types of works. In this series we look at the impact of digital technologies on art and how artists are creating entirely novel forms of art using these modern tools. We’ve previously examined the fields of “datamoshing”, ASCII art, BioArt, Minecraft Art and Internet Art. In this instalment we examine a fascinating world where scientists are teaching robots how to paint works of art.

more…

Well, I take back what I said about all modern art combining the same elements over and over again – loneliness + surrealism + man/woman/beast.

There’s no sign of those three in these robot-painted artworks, except perhaps for the tiniest touch of surrealism. Looking at them, several things really impressed me. It’s so easy for a human (or elephant for that matter) to create an ugly or badly unbalanced work of art. None of these is ugly or unbalanced.

The rating is based on the hardware and software, not on the final paintings. I’d have a lot of difficulty deciding which of these is the best art, or which I’d prefer to have in my living room. I agree that the 8th place one is the only one that couldn’t be painted without a robot. The tendency of a robot to produce uniform brush strokes is most beautifully overcome in the 6th place one.

The logic behind the 7th place one is hilariously cute – ask a robot to reproduce an image but skip the feedback so that the computer artistically mangles the image.

“We’ve previously examined the fields of “datamoshing”, ASCII art, BioArt, Minecraft Art and Internet Art. In this instalment we examine a fascinating world where scientists are teaching robots how to paint works of art on canvas”.

The robot artists at work.

“Datamoshing is a technique that arose in the early 2000s inspired by the glitches seen in early digital video codecs such as DivX. Early experiments in creating intentional flaws in jpeg files led to artists exploring ways of controlling the glitches in digital video. Innovative digital artists began harnessing these compression artifacts and hacking the code of digital video files by implanting intentional flaws to create impressionistic swirls of mashed up imagery.”

“ASCII Art. Almost as soon as the ASCII standard was developed there were pioneers generating visual art from it.”

“BioArt is art made from living organisms such as bacteria and yeast, but also larger organisms. GFP Bunny is probably Kac’s most well-known, and controversial, work, in which he genetically modified an albino bunny with a jellyfish gene, causing the bunny to glow green when exposed to a certain light. Gina Czarnecki grows living portraits of her daughters faces. After taking tissue samples from their mouths and making casts of their faces, Czarnecki grows delicate cellular ecosystems on the glass facial moulds”

“Minecraft Art. Minecraft’s unique ability to be both a game that players can move through, and an open-ended world they can create, has generated some fascinatingly creative outcomes”

“Internet Art. One writer estimated that in in 1995 as much as 8 percent of all web sites were produced by artists, giving the early web a gonzo-like identity that is still felt to this very day.”