M aker A crowd gathers as jostling robots struggle their way through Peter O’Kennedy’s infinite loop, titled Escape.

Re-Booting Art
A new art venue for the robotic age.
By Douglas Repetto

W HAT IS A ROBOT? WHAT IS ART? common with the remote-controlled chainsaws on TV. Those aren’t easy questions to answer. With those two issues in mind, I started a robot Now try defining robotic art, or decide talent show email list. Over the next several months, what exactly an art-making robot is. many people contributed ideas for how to create

In 2001, I was learning the difficulties of trying such a show. As those discussions quickly made to show robotic work in traditional art venues. evident, robotic art is hardly a well-defined genre, (It took decades for galleries and museums to and it’s not clear what sorts of works qualify. Is embrace video art; robotic and kinetic works, with an inkjet printer an art-making robot? Is a purely their sometimes-formidable technical and logistical mechanical sculpture robotic art? Our response to complexities, have quite a way to go.) But at the these kinds of questions was to dodge them entirely; same time, robots were all over the popular media. our open call for entries says: “If you think it’s a Most of the attention was focused on violent appli- robot and you think it’s art, then send it in.” That cations, like BattleBots and Patriot Missiles, yet I strategy of inclusiveness has paid off, and some knew of many artists working with robotics whose of my favorite pieces have been ones that most strange, subtle, or whimsical ideas had little in liberally interpret both “art” and “robot.”

Photography by Douglas Repetto