THE ROBOT IS NOT AN ARTIST
- where
- Galerie Camille
- address
- 4130 Cass Ave Stuite C, Detroit, MI 48201
- visit
- Free and open to the public. Saturday-Sunday, 11am–5pm.
A group show of works from AURA's summer 2025 study, in which eight Detroit-area abstract artists each painted three sessions with another artist and three with a six-axis robot arm holding a brush. Each artist chose one canvas from each pairing. The robot ran a fixed sequence of strokes and could neither see the canvas nor hear its partner; every decision that made the work worth looking at was human. Visitors are invited to guess which paintings came from a human partner and which from the robot, and to notice what led them there. The show draws on the artists' own reflections from the diaries they kept after each session. All works are lent by, and belong to, the artists.
live demo
The study's robot could not see its partners. This one can. Put on the eye-tracking glasses, run a short calibration with a docent, and the robot will paint beside you on an eight-foot canvas, moving to the edge of wherever your gaze settles, marking next to your strokes but never over them, then drifting toward open space. Screens behind you show where you've been looking and what the robot plans next; everyone in the room can see them except you. Only gaze is recorded, nothing identifies you, and the heatmap fades when you hand the glasses on. You can also paint at either end without the glasses at all.
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