Art and Robotics
Is art the exclusive domain of humans? The expressive quality of portraits drawn by robots in a group show that explores the relationship between people and technology may give you pause.
Patrick Tresset, “Human Study #1 - 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul),” 2015
robotic assemblages drawing portraits, installation view (image courtesy New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.)
We’ve been hearing warnings lately that Artificial Intelligence is poised to take over our jobs – everything from truck driving to writing legal contracts. But surely art will remain the domain of humans? Perhaps. Trace, a group exhibition with robots that draw remarkably expressive, even obsessive, portraits, gives one pause. On view until July 1 at the New Media Gallery in the Metro Vancouver city of New Westminster, the show is attracting plenty of interest.
Of course, the robots were created by humans and the way they make marks is based on information given to them by humans – in other words, people programmed them. But the show’s four installations by six international artists are intriguing explorations of the relationship between humans and technology. Where does one begin and the other end?
Patrick Tresset, “Human Study #1 - 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul),” 2015
robotic assemblages drawing portraits, installation view at New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.
Take, for example, the installation Human Study #1, 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul) by Patrick Tresset, a French artist based in London. He built five robots, giving them all his middle name, Paul, and programmed them with basic rules for recognizing human faces.
The structure of each robot is similar: An antiquated school desk with a wooden top, complete with an old-fashioned inkwell hole; a computer inside the desk’s recessed shelf, effectively the robot’s brain; a camera, the robot’s eye, on the desktop; and an articulated metal arm that holds a ballpoint pen. The robots face a chair where visitors can pose for a portrait, an interesting interactive aspect.
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A drawing done by Patrick Tresset’s robotic assemblage “Human Study #1 - 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul)” at the New Media Gallery in New Westminster, B.C.
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A drawing done by Patrick Tresset’s robotic assemblage “Human Study #1 - 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul)” at the New Media Gallery in New Westminster, B.C.
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A drawing done by Patrick Tresset’s robotic assemblage “Human Study #1 - 5RNP (Five Robots Named Paul)” at the New Media Gallery in New Westminster, B.C.
As in a drawing class, models must stay relatively still for up to an hour so the robots have time to complete their portraits, later displayed on the wall. The robots can capture a good likeness. But they can also run into trouble, and when they do, it’s usually a spectacular failure. In one case, a robot fixated on the subject’s shirt rather than the face, creating a good drawing of a piece of plaid fabric. Occasionally, one of the Pauls will go entirely abstract and simply scrawl a few wiggly lines. Maybe artists will be artists, even if they are robots?
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Arnold Colcomb and Bertrand Planes, “Modulateur-Démodulateur,” 2012
multimedia installation with sound signal, installation view at the New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.
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Arnold Colcomb and Bertrand Planes, “Modulateur-Démodulateur,” 2012
multimedia installation with sound signal, installation view at the New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C. (photo by Jennifer Gauthier Photography)
Elsewhere in the gallery, two Parisian artists, Arnauld Colcomb and Bertrand Planes, show their Modulateur-Démodulateur, a multimedia installation that uses a pre-existing image on one wall (here, a portrait of Queen Victoria from the New Westminster archives) and reconstructs it every four minutes into a new image on the opposite wall.
It happens via sound signals relayed between two handmade wooden objects, one housing a transmitter and the other a receiver. The new images look like pixelated drawings or old-fashioned needlework patterns. But as the signal is transmitted across the room, it’s easily altered by ambient sounds. Conversations, hand claps or even a few hoots can visibly change the new image.
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So Kanno and yang02, “SDM3-Portrait,” 2015
robotic and digital video installation, installation view at New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.
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Grégory Chatonsky, “Deep,” 2016
digital video documentation on three monitors, installation view at New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.
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Grégory Chatonsky, “Deep,” 2016
digital video documentation of Deep learning at New Media Gallery, New Westminster, B.C.
The show also includes SDM3 – Portrait, a drawing system that uses a camera, a computer and a video projection, created by Tokyo- and Berlin-based artists So Kanno and yang02. A final work, Deep, is by Canadian artist Gregory Chatonsky, an artist-researcher at the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. Deep uses software that learns to draw based on the artist’s drawings as well as learn-to-draw books.
The show’s interactive capacities will be tested on Saturday, May 26, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. when Vancouver artist Carol Sawyer drops in for an experimental improvised performance. ■
Trace is on view at the New Media Gallery in New Westminster, B.C., from April 28 to July 1, 2018.
New Media Gallery
777 Columbia Street (3rd flr, Anvil Centre), New Westminster, British Columbia V3M 1B6
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