"robotic painting", interactive installation, robotic arm, software, ink, paper, 2009
The work is a reactive installation, simulating the natural act of painting with traditional media of ink and brush by an artificial system. Study of the behavior of a software system, electromechanical parts, random effect on the programming cycle, random error.
The aesthetics of mechanical behavior is a factor in a life-machine system that explores the tension between human agency and technological determinism within this paradigm, raising questions about the nature of existence, consciousness, and the impact of industrialization on society.
It investigates the relationship between human activity and modified software execution based on the random timing effect in the programming cycle. Repetitive movement gives rhythm to the display. The random error, (of stepper motors) the random mutations of motion evolving due to repetition, gives the system the property of behavior.
Two sensors, when activated, trigger a random alteration in the program cycle. The resulting reaction varies due to three factors: manipulation of the process termination time, the inherent random error that introduces uniqueness, especially across numerous repetitions, and the quantity of works produced. While repetition establishes a rhythm, the random error elevates the outcome to abstract creation.
"Digital technology can be used to map physical (material) relationships in space and the effect that such mediation has on human experience, perception and memory." Lov Manovich