I love reading about new robotic drawing machines. This morning an announcement about Benjamin Grosser’s interactive robotic painting machine came into my in box from Rhizome.org and I had to stop what I was doing to read more and post about it.
Interactive Robotic Painting Machine (timelapse) from benjamin grosser on Vimeo.
Artist Benjamin Grosser has built a painting machine that is impressive. At first glance it reminds me of the pen plotter work that Verostko has been doing for ages but Grosser clearly built this machine himself.
Building on previous projects he has completed that are environmentally aware (“Finding Your Voice” and “Speed of Reality“), this machine listens to its environment and incorporates the sounds it picks up into its painting.
Grosser writes… “The result of over a year’s worth of work, the machine uses artificial intelligence to paint its own body of work and to make its own decisions. It also listens to its environment and considers what it hears as input into the painting process.” It would appear from his use of tags on his blog that he is also employing genetic algorithms in the artificial intelligence portion of the project.
Grosser’s machine is also unique in that it is designed to operate either by itself or as part of a performance where there may be musicians interacting with it. The machine itself will function as a musical instrument feeding pitched chords into the performance.
Grosser’s machine makes its public performance debut tonight at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, IL, 7:30p. If you live anywhere nearby you should check it out!
