2018 Robot Art Winners Announced!
<h4>We’re excited to announce the winners of the third and final $100,000 Robot Art competition!</h4>
The year we had 19 teams from all over the world submit over 100 robot-created artworks. Winners were determined based on a combination of public voting (over 2000 people with a Facebook account), judges consisting of working artists, critics, and technologists, and by how well the team met the spirit of the competition – that is, to create\
something beautiful using a physical brush and robotics and to share what they learned with others. Learn more about the goals of the contest and its rules <a href=”//robotart.org/rules-information”>here</a>.
<a href=”//robotart.org/more-info/”>Read</a> more about robot art (useful for journalists/press).
We will be showing some of this year and previous years artwork during the Seattle Art Fair (August 2-5) at a nearby location TBD. Our goal of the
show is test Andy Warhol’s theory that “You know it’s ART, when the check clears.”<p>
… and now, for the team winners of the 2018 Robot Art Competition…
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<h3>1st Place – $40,000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/pix18-creative-machines-lab”>PIX18 / Creative Machines Lab</a> – Columbia University (USA)</h3>
This project from Columbia shows a high level of skill with brushstrokes. This, along with some deep learning algorithms, produces some lovely paintings from sources or scratch. When they used a photograph as source they were able to create plenty of variation from the original and using a fluid medium to produce an atmospheric and open-ended\
visual experience. Much of their work had a painterly and contemporary presentation.
[simple_thumb_link project=”2555″][/simple_thumb_link][simple_thumb_link project=”3173″][/simple_thumb_link][simple_thumb_link project=”2562″][/simple_thumb_link]
Composition and brush strokes evocative of Van Gogh. Interesting palette. Felt a bit like a texture or pattern making — so less emotional.
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<h3>2nd Place – $25,000 – <a href=”/team/profile/cmit-reart_1″>CMIT ReART</a>, Kasetsart University (Thailand)</h3>
Artists program this robot brushstroke by stroke, using a haptic recording system that generates volumes of data about the position of the brush and the forces being exerted. When re-played, reART will generate a perfect reproduction of the original strokes. Haptic recording and playback allows for remarkably high-quality inkbrush drawings
One of the aspects of a success commercial artist is to know their market. In this case, the students chose to paint the popular and recently deceased Thai King and therefore were able to get many students to vote for their team.
<p class=”p1″>[simple_thumb_link project=”2780″][/simple_thumb_link][simple_thumb_link project=”2790″][/simple_thumb_link][simple_thumb_link project=”2286″][/simple_thumb_link]
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<h3>3rd Place – $10,000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/cloudpainter_1″>CloudPainter</a> – Gonzaga (USA)</h3>
Incorporating machine-learning technology, including Style Transfer with Google’s TensorFlow algorithms, enabled CloudPainter to paint evocative portraits with varying degrees of abstraction. The source code and 3d models for CloudPainter are available online, and its creator has written about and given talks on his philosophy and methodology\
.
[simple_thumb_link project=”1719″][simple_thumb_link project=”2821″][simple_thumb_link project=”1720″]
All of this teams offerings are important. They are aiming at an interpretation of the optical properties of oil paint, and applying them to deep learning. Spontaneous paint, “mosaicing” of adjacent tones, layering effects and the graphical interplay between paint strokes of varying textures, are all hand/eye, deeply neurally sophisticated as\
pects of oil painting that this team is trying to evince together with a robot.
<strong>This team also won the $5,000 price for technical contribution.</strong>
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<h3>4th Place $6000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/e-david_1″>e-David</a> – University of Konstanz (Germany)</h3>
Using software that enables a collaboration between a human artist and roboticist, e-David mimics closely the approach a human painter would work on the canvas. An accompanying academic paper goes into deep detail about their approach to the project.
[simple_thumb_link project=”2154″][simple_thumb_link project=”1999″]
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<h3>5th Place $4000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/jackbdu”>JACKbDU</a> – New York University Shanghai (China)</h3>
<strong> </strong>Clean lines, interesting abstractions, both familiar and abstract subjects made me appreciate the overall body. In particularly, purely from aesthetics, these were found to be most compelling.
[simple_thumb_link project=”1928″][simple_thumb_link project=”1942″][simple_thumb_link project=”1926″]
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<h3>6th Place $2000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/heartalion_1″>HEARTalion</a> – Halmstad University (Sweden)</h3>
If this body of work was exhibited at a gallery and I was told that the artist aimed to capture emotion through color, composition, and textures — I would buy (says one of our professional judges). The bold brush strokes, cool or warm templates to match the emotional quality expressed, all made sense — but felt alive. Loved them.
<strong>[simple_thumb_link project=”2513″][simple_thumb_link project=”2510″][simple_thumb_link project=”2506″]
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<h3>7th Place $2000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/late-night-projects”>Late Night Projects</a> – Independent</h3>
Loved the composition of both of these pieces. Both pieces bring an emotive calm with just a few colors, technique, and simplicity. Gem-style optical sketch, intimate scale, good formal balance, medium application and value panels.
[simple_thumb_link project=”2067″][simple_thumb_link project=”2089″][simple_thumb_link project=”1758″]
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<h3>8th Place $2000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/wentworth-institute-of-technology”>Wentworth Institute of Technology</a> (USA)</h3>
This project uses the precision of a robot to take crude brush dabs to astonishing levels. By incorporating 3d scans into it’s image generation, this bot operates with a more complete understanding of its subject; much like a human painter would have of someone sitting for them. The team was kind enough to publish their 3d models and source c\
ode, so others can learn from and build off of their work.
[simple_thumb_link project=”2121″][simple_thumb_link project=”2139″][simple_thumb_link project=”2123″]
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<h3>9th Place $2000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/carp-custom-autonomous-robotic-painter_1″>CARP</a> -Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA)</h3>
Very good line. Lots of space in this drawing, and central form is simultaneously dense and traversable. Good architectural reference in clear tooling, but enlivened by sumo type or Franz Kline strokes. If the shapes can be continue to be explored while maintaining the hand/machine balance, this will remain a strong venue.
Slightly synesthetic. Beautiful and balanced fusion of technical and handmade, crystalline and organic.
[simple_thumb_link project=”2058″][simple_thumb_link project=”2608″][simple_thumb_link project=”2602″]
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<h3>10th Place $2000 – <a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/babot_1″>BABOT</a> – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)</h3>
[simple_thumb_link project=”3098″][simple_thumb_link project=”2909″]
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<h2>Special recognition prizes $1000/each</h2>
<a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/chicago-engineering-design-team_1″>Chicago Engineering Design Team</a> – University of Illinois at Chicago (USA)
<a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/manibus-team_1/”>JacksonBot</a> – University of Heidelberg (Germany)
<a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/christian-h-seidler”>Christian H. Seidler</a> – The Jeffersonian Institute (USA)
<a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/anguis”>Anguis</a> – Oregon State University (USA)
<a href=”https://robotart.org/team/profile/manibus-team_1″>Manibus Team</a> – Ballet Des Moines (USA)
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