Robot Art from the Ashtray Factory

Posted 21 Apr 2005 at 15:38 UTC by steve

The Swirling Brain sent a new Wired article our way that talks about a robotic art group called the Amorphic Robot Works. The group was founded by Chico MacMurtrie who has spent 15 years building robot sculptures. Working from an old ashtray factory in Brooklyn, the group has built over 250 robots so far. Like all art groups, there is a constant struggle for funding but they make due using old computers and surplus parts. The group provides some information on their control systems in a technical FAQ that will be of interest to other robot geeks.

Behold the old and a little rusty Mr. Art Grant, posted 22 Apr 2005 at 13:21 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

There was a robot group in Central Texas that we were always amazed could get art grants like the art group mentioned in the article. Mind you, they did have really cool stuff and we always like going down to see their exhibitions. But like, why couldn't our group also get a grant - $ka-ching$! Sour Grapes perhaps. Anyway, it just amazes me that any philinthropic entity would give a grant for robot motion art which produces some old rusted robotic stuff that does little more than hit a drum when someone yells, but who am I to tell them what to give their grant money for? I guess art is in the eye of the beholder and art grant money is in the pocket of P.T. Barnum.

tish and fipsey, posted 22 Apr 2005 at 15:25 UTC by dogsbody_d » (Master)

Oh come on play fair.

The amount of money available to the arts is piddly compared to what's available to science. How much do DARPA dole out to projects? People are always complaining that NASA spend too much money, but I daresay the cost of transporting the shuttle from the hangar to the launch pad would stop starving artists starving for some time.

The state of science in the arts may be rubbish, but then the standards of literacy and critical theory in science and engineering are appalling.

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