Created at ECAL during a one week workshop led by Thibault Brevet, The Center for Counter-Productive Robotics is a collection of experiments where a robot was programmed to perform counter-productive tasks, with intention to develop a more human-centric approach to robotics.

Created by Piet Schmidt during the summer semester at UdK Berlin (New Media / Digital Class), Encounter is a a robotic arm with a mirror that curiously observes its surroundings.

Developed by studio AATB, Sunny Side Up is an installation comprised of a robotic arm and a metal rod, proposing a contemporary version of the archaic typology of the sundial.

This research project by Gramazio Kohler Research at ETH Zurich titled ‘Mesh Mould’ investigates the unification of reinforcement and formwork into a single robotically fabricated material system. Developed with the use of industrial robots, the process allows ‘spatial robotic extrusion’, creating interdependencies of mesh typology and concrete.

Sorry, this is Members Only content. Please Log-in. Join us today by becoming a Member. Archive: More than 3,500 project profiles, scores of essays, interviews and reviews.Publish: Post your projects, events, announcements.No Ads: No advertisements, miners, banners.Education: Tutorials (beginners and advanced) with code examples, downloads.Jobs Archive: Find employers who have recruited here in the past…

Sorry, this is Members Only content. Please Log-in. Join us today by becoming a Member. Archive: More than 3,500 project profiles, scores of essays, interviews and reviews.Publish: Post your projects, events, announcements.No Ads: No advertisements, miners, banners.Education: Tutorials (beginners and advanced) with code examples, downloads.Jobs Archive: Find employers who have recruited here in the past…

Sorry, this is Members Only content. Please Log-in. Join us today by becoming a Member. Archive: More than 3,500 project profiles, scores of essays, interviews and reviews.Publish: Post your projects, events, announcements.No Ads: No advertisements, miners, banners.Education: Tutorials (beginners and advanced) with code examples, downloads.Jobs Archive: Find employers who have recruited here in the past…

RE:PLACES is a complex 1.70-meter-high robotic apparatus that excretes the plastic objects and then deposits them around the exhibition space like three-dimensional brushstrokes.

Created by Kachi Chan, ‘Sisyphus’ is an installation featuring two robots engaged in endless cyclic interaction. Smaller robots build brick arches, whilst a giant robot pushes them down – propelling a narrative of construction and deconstruction.

Created by Behnaz Farahi, ‘Returning the Gaze’ explores the complicity of the fashion industry with female objectification and sexual harassment. Comprised of a female model wearing a spacesuit-like outfit and accompanied by four robotic arms, the gaze of the model is directed back at the viewer.

First in a series of investigations of creative human-robot teams led by Dr. Kate Sicchio (choreography) and Dr. Patrick Martin (robotics). It explores gestures of the robot arm as a starting point for a duet. Interacting through mimicry, timings and spatial patterns, this piece examines choreography beyond our own human bodies and how we begin to dance with machines.

Altar-3000′ is a project and a device that explores the notion of an AI prophet, a automated totem of customised belief. The home altar connects to the internet to retrieve latest betting headlines from PredictIt, humanity’s financial positions on the near future IRL.

Created by Michael Candy, ‘Cryptid’ is an animatronic light sculpture that uses 18 linear actuators and open source Phoenix hexapod code to walk through a space. As human and robotic, natural and synthetic are increasingly amalgamated, the projects questions whether machines could be considered a subspecies.

As per tradition each year, December is when we look back at the amazing work published on CAN. From ingenious machines and installations to mesmerising experiences that leverage new mediums for artistic inquiry – we added scores of projects to CAN’s archive in 2019. Here are some highlights.

CAN will join (and report from) the ECAL Research Day, an eclectic symposium where artists, designers, and scholars will discuss the entanglement of technology and research.

‘Algorithmic Drive’ is an interactive installation and performance inspired by inspired by autonomous cars and dash cam compilations. The work plays with the tension generated by confronting the technologies used by mobile robotics with the unpredictable nature of the world.

Created by Soonho Kwon, Harsh Kedia and Akshat Prakash, Anti-Drawing Machine project explores possible alternatives of how we engage with robots today—instead of purely utilitarian and precise, Anti-Drawing Machine is a robot that can be whimsical and imperfectly characteristic.

As 2018 comes to a close, we take a moment to look back at the outstanding work done this year. From spectacular machines, intricate tools and mesmerising performances and installations to the new mediums for artistic enquiry – so many great new projects have been added to the CAN archive! With your help we selected some favourites.

Created by Madeline Gannon for the 2018 Annual Meeting of New Champions at the The World Economic Forum, in Tianjin, China, Manus is a set of ten industrial robots that are programmed to behave like a pack of animals.

Created by the team at MIT Media Lab’s Meditated Matter Group, Fiberbots is a digital fabrication framework fusing cooperative swarm robotic manufacturing with abilities to generate highly sophisticated material structures.

Created by Maria Smigieska in collaboration with Pierre Cutellic, Proteus project is an analog digital display that allows for interacting with matter. It is an experiment on the modulation of ferrofluid patterns controlled by both magnetic field and robotic interface.

Created by Marco Donnarumma in collaboration with Neurobotics Research Laboratory and Ana Rajcevic Studio, Amygdala MKI is a prototype for an artificially intelligent prosthesis with only aim is to learn a purification ritual of “skin-cutting” found in animistic tribes, so it trains on its own body, endlessly.

Created by the SCI-Arc faculty Curime Batliner and Jake Newsum in collaboration with Paralelo Architectos, Anachronic Landscapes is a robotic system that lives inside of an abandoned industrial structure overgrown by nature. The system executes its daily routine, nurturing the plants with water and fertilising it with fluorescent fluids. While the machine keeps the plants alive it simultaneously ignites a process of transformation forcing the plants to adapt to the new condition.

‘Déguster l’augmenté’ is a collaborative project by Erika Marthins with ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design) that questions if food could be augmented and technology provide a new dimension to how we experience a meal.

Aalto University, Helsinki, FI Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, PL Academy of IT, Warsaw, Poland Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti di Genova, IT ACG International, China ARA Institute of Canterbury, NZ Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR Art and Technology at the University of Oregon, US ArtCenter College of Design, US ArtEZ Arnhem, NL ArtEZ…

Created by Filipe Vilas-Boas and Paul Coudamy, The Punishment is an installation in which a robot executes a preventive punishment for its possible future disobedience in reference of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

A project by Design I/O for TIFF Kids International Film Festival’s interactive playground digiPlaySpace, Mimic brings a UR5 robotic arm to life and imbues it with personality. Playfully craning its neck to get a better look, arcing back when it is startled – it responds to each child that enters its field of view.

Interactive Architecture Lab founder Ruairi Glynn chats with CAN about the freshly-launched Design for Performance & Interaction (DfPI) programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

If you create interactive experiences you’ll want to check out the fourth annual INSTINT in New Orleans.

Strelka Institute for architecture, media and design launched the enrollment campaign for the postgraduate education program. The theme of the 7th academic year at Strelka is The New Normal.