Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art: How Robotics and A.I. Could Influence Creativity

The brushstroke - in its various manifestations - is the only communication tool that is encountered in paintings and drawings across generations. The production of a stroke involves a complex interplay between different perceptual, cognitive and physical processes. Its reproduction with computational and robotic technologies provides us with the opportunity to study and better understand these processes.

The project "Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art'' (EACVA) approaches this study through a multi-disciplinary collaboration between artists, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, as well as computer art and robotics engineers (website of the project accessible at www.eacva.co.uk). The collaboration will unfold throughout artistic residencies and workshops, during which we will develop a methodology informed by our respective fields of expertise while also producing artworks with state-of-the-art robotic painting and drawing systems. The software and tools, developed during this period in close collaboration with the artists involved, will be open source, thereby contributing to the growing community of artists and researchers working on artistic applications of robotics. Lastly, the resulting artworks, texts, and systems will be presented in the form of a public-facing exhibition at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

The exhibition will include the presentation of live performance installations with several robots, exposing their internal representations and decision-making processes with the aim of demystifying machine and computer-driven creation. By combining state-of-the-art robotic systems with historical contexts and didactic curatorial methodologies, we will offer the public an informed insider view into the creative potential of machines. The show will provide a unique opportunity to further investigate our research questions by gathering quantitative and qualitative data through surveys. We will dedicate a post-production period to the creation of a printed catalogue.documenting the artworks and their production, and we will prepare publications relevant to the diverse disciplines represented within our collaborative team.