liveDraw

BACKGROUND: This research is situated across two fields of inquiry; collaborative creative practices and automated-art-systems. Described as ‘participatory’ or ‘relational’ art in Bourriaud’s theory of ‘relational aesthetics’ and critiqued by Bishop in Artificial Hells (2012), these collaborative practices are manifested through artist publishing (Allen, 2011) and as cooperative art-activism (Spampinato, 2014). These collaborative practices can be expanded through the field of robotic drawing and mark-making as pioneered by practitioners like Verostko, Mohr, and Cohen (Taylor, 2014). This research incorporates these fields by means of an experiment in collaborative, real-time, natural media publishing made possible through the use of networked technologies and robotics. CONTRIBUTION: liveDraw is a custom-built semi-autonomous networked drawing robot (engineered by Simionato). Artists from around the world were invited to draw original works via a custom-coded mobile device software application (coded by Donnachie) which transmitted to the drawing-robot in real-time. Artists’ drawing gestures were performed by the robot at the same rate as the original human movement, including any pauses or ‘ripensamento.’ Drawings were algorithmically remixed and drawn in natural media onto a continuous scroll of paper. SIGNIFICANCE: liveDraw was the outcome of the competitive, juried selection in the inaugural Edicola Radetzky Artist-in-residence, funded by the Milan Municipal council and Progetto Città Ideale (Milan). Its significance can be further attested to through its exhibition at the Edicola Radetzky performance art space in 2017, inside an all-glass enclosure situated in the centrally located canal district of Milan, Italy, visible to the public 24/7. The work was featured in Italian magazines ‘Artribune’ and ‘That’s Contemporary. In 2018, the work was presented at the National Gallery of Victoria’s Public Programs at Melbourne Art Book Fair during the NGV Design Triennale.