Machining Emotion | RDM Campus

_Machining Emotion_photo Ila_website
Machining Emotion | ABB robot in action at RDM Campus 2015

Robotic Painting

The Robotic Painting project intends to establish a mutual relationship between human emotions and robotic machines. The Robotic Painting process is based on a series of consecutive steps. It starts with visual artist Ilona Lénárd painting fast and intuitive gestures on paper. These initial sketches are executed with an acrylic brush fixed to a 3d digitizer stylus pen they are augmented with the varying orientations of the stylus and the changing pressures of the marker tip  The augmented points list corresponding to the initial gesture serves as input for the code as written by Ana Maria Anton and Serban Bodea, both designers and programmers. Within this process, our algorithm maps fractal self-similarity on the initial emotive curve finally loading the file to instruct the giant ABB robot, which will execute its seemingly absurd task with utmost precision. It has been quite exciting to experience the robust robot unscrupulously execute such a delicate paint job on the canvases. The process was curated by Kas Oosterhuis, creative director of VAA.ONL and professor Hyperbody TU Delft. In 4 working sessions the Robotic Painting team managed to produce 12 unique paintings, of measuring 110 x 190cm each.

12 paintings 12 characters

By precise control of the parameters in the code, just like by intentional manipulation of the arm movements that caused the original sketch, specific characters are built. For each of the 12 robotic paintings different characters are intentionally chosen, ranging from simple to complex, from single to multiple layers, from monochrome to multicoloured, from small to large tip of the  acrylic brush, from slow to fast robotic movements, from smooth trajectories to more angular ones, from nervously changing the angle of the marker to smooth and gradual changes in the position of the tip with respect to the canvas. Once a robotic painted canvas is made, one takes appropriate distance and starts to make interpretations of possible meanings of the unpredicted painting. Each painting is given a title, revealing some of the underlying emotions of the intuitive and deliberate decisions made during the analogue and digital machining process.

Machining Emotion #01 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #01 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #03 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #03 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #04 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #04 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #06 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #06 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #09 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #09 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #10 | robotic painting | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #10 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #11 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015
Machining Emotion #11 | robotic painting | acrylic marker on canvas | 110x190cm | RDM Campus 2015

Design team: Ilona Lénárd, Kas Oosterhuis, Ana Maria Anton, Serban Bodea | RDM Campus 2015