DrawBots
Systems Art
Drawing
Robots
DrawBots are mono-wheeled balancing robots which interact with each other to make drawings. They were created to be independently operating art agents which make art by communicating their location in relation to each other in an autonomous interaction.
The intention was that the artist would be replaced by computation, and original abstract art would be created by independent robotic interaction. They represent the physical embodiment of my process-based fine art practice, which sought to break drawing down to its essential constructive components and reconstruct these elements through serial actions.
The concept is a continuation of Systems Art in the exploration of the presence of the artist through the limitation of the influence of the artist in aesthetic and creative decisions.
The reality is that I found that they needed tending to - I had to charge their batteries, refill ink, change paper. I also became attached to them - I named them, I worried about them, I gave personalities to their differing behaviours. I also experimented with them - I tried out different attachments, I played with different materials, I came up with other ideas for future versions. In short, they might have been a mechanical version of a drawing concept art system but they were never going to be independent. The realisation that I could never be replaced as the artist changed my art practice.
