1

We hope that by tweaking the specifics, we can keep the show open and accessible to a diverse range of people, works, and ideas. There have been robots that draw, robots that dance, and everything from a self-preservation machine to a robot race in an infinite loop. ArtBots is low-budget and hands-on

ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show is now an annual art exhibition (see artbots.org) where an international group of artists gather to share their work and their trade techniques, and give a general audience a chance to see what kinds of answers

(and new questions!) are being cooked up in labs, garages, and studios around the world. Each year, our location changes and I invite a couple of new people to co-curate the show with me. (Philip

Galanter, an artist and teacher, joined me in co-curating and producing the first two iterations of the show.)

2

(all of the artists attend and help mount the show), ¹ Wildflower Meadow Glacier by James Powderly,
and is dedicated to the idea that technology is ours ^{Michelle Kempner, Tom Kennedy, Todd Polenberg,}
_{to use and create, and that making art and asking} Brendan Fitzgerald, and Paul Bartlett. Scale model of an
^{questions is an essential use of any technology. enormous artificial glacier moving through Central Park,} leaving a path of wildflowers in its wake. The density of
flower planting is determined by continuous monitoring
of the CO_² levels in the local environment.

Douglas Irving Repetto is an artist and teacher involved in a ² Robots Like H_²O: Photosynthesis Perpetual Motion number of art/community groups including dorkbot, ArtBots, Machine by Futurefarmers: Amy Franceschini and organism, and music-dsp. Michael Swaine.