The guiding question of this work on the “painting robots” is “Can robots be creative?”. Now the creator, Pindar Van Arman would argue yes, mainly because at times robots have to make the decisions in terms of where a stroke goes and have the ability to view their own work via camera.
Summary of Hardware
- Robot arm
- The robot “watched” what they make using a camera.
- Art Supplies
Summary of Method
- A target image and a style image… the target image is stylized based on the characteristics and images presented in the style inspiration work.
- This combination comes through a complex algorithm.
- The robot has memory of the previous works it has created
- Over time the works develop a unique style based on the training
Why is it interesting?
- I never thought about robots as creative.
- The robots aren’t simply combining the images, there is actual painting happening.
- Will robots at one point have the power to be creative?
- For now all the inputs come from the data scientist, but how long before robots can “think” of their own combination ideas?
- Not even “painting the next person you see” is really the idea of the robot, it’s just part of the coding.
Sources
“An Artificially Intelligent Painting Robot.” Cloudpainter, http://www.cloudpainter.com/.
Arman, Pindar Van. “Creativity Is Probably Just a Complex Mix of Generative Art Algorithms.” Medium, Data Driven Investor, 29 Dec. 2018, https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/creativity-is-probably-just-a-complex-mix-of-generative-art-algorithms-6d37a0087e86.
Arman, Pindar Van. “From Printing to Painting: Computationally Creative Robots.” Medium, Medium, 16 May 2018, https://medium.com/@pindar.vanarman/from-printing-to-painting-the-emergence-of-computationally-creative-robots-cb2f41846dd0.
Arman, Pindar Van. “Does AI Art Belong in the Physical, Digital, or Crypto World?” Medium, Medium, 8 Apr. 2019, https://medium.com/@pindar.vanarman/does-ai-art-belong-in-the-physical-digital-or-crypto-world-3cb4fe5e01b0.
Fitzpatrick, Sophie. “Art in a Technological World.” EDGY_ Labs, 4 June 2019, https://edgy.app/art-in-a-technological-world.
Muoio, Danielle. “Watch a Robot Paint Incredible Pieces of Art.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Feb. 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/pindar-van-armans-robot-can-paint-2016-2.
News, VICE. YouTube, YouTube, 10 Aug. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=112&v=dkTjEi7O4Ic.