paintbot research

Tate Modern, London, UK

2011-12-06T18:07:00.000-05:00

Tom and I saw the Gerhard Richter retrospective. The whole first room related to Duchamp, including the famous Nude Descending a Staircase. A tribute to the Large Glass was there too:

4 Panes of Glass
Gerhard Richter
1967

11 Panes
Gerhard Richter
2004

In a later room was this piece in the same series, which gave the viewer a Richter-like reflection.

Paintings by Anne Truitt

2011-11-23T17:59:00.000-05:00

Sculpture in Anne Truitt's Washington DC studio
1980

Truitt, like Kenneth Noland, is considered a Color Field artist. She did works on canvas but was truly wonderful as a painter-sculptor. She gave pigments a bodily form, so they stand like people in the room.

Valley Forge
Installation at the Dallas Museum of Art
1962

Gamma Correction

2011-11-14T22:52:00.001-05:00

LED color mixing advice from a friend:

I usually write a C99 program that runs on an actual computer to generate a gamma correction table that I include with the program running on the microcontroller. It gets stored in the flash memory of the AVR so it doesn't use up any precious RAM:
#include#include#include#includeint main(int argc, char *argv[]) { printf("uint8_t gammaCorrect[] PROGMEM = {"); uint8_t i = 0; do { printf("%s0x%02X,", (i % 8) ? " " : "\n ", (uint16_t)(pow((double)i / 255.0, 2.5) * 255.0 + 0.5)); } while (++i); printf("\n};\n"); return 0;}(save as main.c, compile with: "gcc -std=gnu99 -c main.c -o main.o", link with: "gcc -lm main.o -o main", run with: "./main")
and you should get as output:
uint8_t gammaCorrect[] PROGMEM = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x01, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x02, 0x03, 0x03, 0x03, 0x03, 0x03, 0x04, 0x04, 0x04, 0x04, 0x04, 0x05, 0x05, 0x05, 0x05, 0x06, 0x06, 0x06, 0x06, 0x07, 0x07, 0x07, 0x07, 0x08, 0x08, 0x08, 0x09, 0x09, 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0A, 0x0A, 0x0B, 0x0B, 0x0C, 0x0C, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x0D, 0x0E, 0x0E, 0x0F, 0x0F, 0x0F, 0x10, 0x10, 0x11, 0x11, 0x12, 0x12, 0x13, 0x13, 0x14, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x16, 0x17, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0x19, 0x1A, 0x1A, 0x1B, 0x1C, 0x1C, 0x1D, 0x1E, 0x1E, 0x1F, 0x20, 0x21, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x24, 0x24, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2A, 0x2B, 0x2C, 0x2D, 0x2E, 0x2E, 0x2F, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39, 0x3A, 0x3B, 0x3C, 0x3D, 0x3E, 0x3F, 0x40, 0x41, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49, 0x4B, 0x4C, 0x4D, 0x4E, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x59, 0x5A, 0x5B, 0x5D, 0x5E, 0x5F, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x65, 0x66, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6B, 0x6C, 0x6E, 0x6F, 0x71, 0x72, 0x74, 0x75, 0x77, 0x79, 0x7A, 0x7C, 0x7D, 0x7F, 0x81, 0x82, 0x84, 0x86, 0x87, 0x89, 0x8B, 0x8D, 0x8E, 0x90, 0x92, 0x94, 0x96, 0x97, 0x99, 0x9B, 0x9D, 0x9F, 0xA1, 0xA3, 0xA5, 0xA6, 0xA8, 0xAA, 0xAC, 0xAE, 0xB0, 0xB2, 0xB4, 0xB6, 0xB8, 0xBA, 0xBD, 0xBF, 0xC1, 0xC3, 0xC5, 0xC7, 0xC9, 0xCC, 0xCE, 0xD0, 0xD2, 0xD4, 0xD7, 0xD9, 0xDB, 0xDD, 0xE0, 0xE2, 0xE4, 0xE7, 0xE9, 0xEB, 0xEE, 0xF0, 0xF3, 0xF5, 0xF8, 0xFA, 0xFD, 0xFF,};include that in the AVR code, making sure you include the proper header:
#includeand then use it as follows:
output_value = pgm_read_byte(&gammaCorrect[input_value]);to convert an 8-bit "input_value" into a gamma-corrected "output_value", which is the actual brightness value you should set the LED to.

Güten Plotter

2011-11-11T03:09:00.000-05:00

I'm using the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic to print all the translucent parts (3 cars, 4 gears). Each piece takes around 5-7 hours to print and this is the 11th iteration of the cars (hence the lambda). Earlier iterations have plotted mathematical functions (monster functions, specifically); vector images are the ultimate goal. This is the first version to use 1/4" steel rods, as opposed to the aluminum 3/8" rods that had long been a limiting factor.

Paintings by Botticelli

2011-11-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

Primavera
1482

From right to left we see Zephyrus taking the nymph Cloris by force, transforming her into the goddess of Spring and giver of life. This story comes from Ovid, and Botticelli indicates that this is the same character at two different points in time by showing her garments blowing in two different winds. In the center is Venus, goddess of beauty in red, blue and gold. Above her is Cupid, god of desire in the colors of the Medici. His arrow is aimed at the three Graces, obliviously dancing a roundelay. In the red to counter Zephyrus' blue is Mercury, the messenger god, keeping the clouds away.

Calumny of Apelles
1494

This is another allegorical painting, one of Botticelli's last. It is a recreation of a self-portrait of the painter Apelles, which had been destroyed but was described by the ancient writer Lucian. Apelles had been falsely accused by a jealous rival, a story familiar to Botticelli's life. In the painting, from right to left, we see: Suspicion and Ignorance whispering in the donkey ears of King Midas; Envy reaching out to request judgement; Conspiracy and Fraud adorning Slander with the attributes of beauty; innocent Apelles dragged by his hair; Repentance following in tatters, looking back at the statuesque Truth, who is pointing to the only true judge.

Scuderie Quirinale, Rome, Italy

2011-10-27T18:04:00.000-04:00

Lisa and I went to Rome and saw an exhibit of Botticelli & Lippi at the Scuderie Quirinale. It was light on the Botticellis but told an interesting story. This was Lippi the younger, the illegitimate son of Botticelli's painting teacher, who in turn became Botticelli's student. Lippi was competent but not gifted. But when Botticelli suffered his crisis of faith and turned away from his wealthy patrons, Lippi quickly filled the void. Lippi did make some interesting work in this time, whereas Botticelli made only biblical works in muted tones.

The Adoration of the Magi
Sandro Botticelli
1475

The Adoration of the Magi
Filippino Lippi
1496

Colormix 3 (Pixel)

2011-10-09T21:00:00.000-04:00

Makerbot-printed parts

Colormix 2 (3 Graces)

2011-10-09T19:00:00.000-04:00

Sandro Botticelli
c. 1482

Raphael
c. 1504

Peter Paul Rubens
1639

Colormix 1 (RGB/RYB)

2011-10-09T16:38:00.001-04:00

Paintings of the Sea

2011-10-02T00:43:00.000-04:00

Crossing of the Red Sea

Cosimo Rosselli

1481-1482

The Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli

1485

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

1633

Watson and the Shark

John Singleton Copley

1778

Monk by the Sea

Caspar David Friedrich

1809

Fire at Sea

Joseph Mallord William Turner

1835

Caravan Halted by the Sea Shore

Richard Dadd

1843

Tempest on the Sea at Night

Ivan Aivazovsky

1849

Schooner in a Stormy Sea

James Edward Butterworth

The Sea

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

1865

The Green Wave

Claude Monet

1866

Atlantic Seascape

William Trost Richards

1870

Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise)

Claude Monet

1872

Looking out to Sea (Female Figure in Black near a Window)

Winslow Homer

1872

Syria by the Sea

Frederic Edwin Church

1873

Argenteuil

Edouard Manet

1874

The Much Resounding Sea

Thomas Moran

1884

Fishing Boats at Sea

Vincent van Gogh

1888

Philadelphia Museum of Art

2011-08-20T18:06:00.000-04:00

I finally got to see in person the Duchamp pieces I studied in the course of the "Seduction of Duchamp" show. The Large Glass is lovely with the window looking out on the fountain behind.

The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, EvenMarcel Duchamp
1923

And like any red-blooded American, I can't resist good Benjamin Franklin portrait.

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity From the SkyBenjamin West
1816

The Met, New York

2011-08-07T17:51:00.000-04:00

I'm very grateful for getting to see the Alexmander McQueen Met show. It was wonderful. Here is his dress made by a dance with two painting robots.

Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, and Vincent van Gogh

2011-04-07T18:19:00.000-04:00

Frida (2002)
Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera

Pollock (2000)
Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock and Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner

Lust for Life (1956)
Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh and Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin

Red Ochre, Gold, Ultramarine

2011-03-23T00:34:00.001-04:00

Ultramarine Blue

2011-03-23T00:21:00.000-04:00

Ultramarine Blue
Purchased in New York, April 2011

All the experiments I have made with the view of ascertaining if the chemical nature of bodies, when placed beside each other, has any influence on the modification of their colours, have, as I expected, led me to an absolutely negative conclusion. Whatever happened to be the chemical composition of the coloured substances, provided they were identical in colour, they gave the same results. I will cite the following examples: Indigo or prussian-blue, cobalt, ultramarine, as nearly alike as possible, gave the same kind of modification. Orange prepared with red lead, or annotto, or with the mixture of wood and madder, gave the same modification to the colours with which they were juxtaposed. (Chevruel 60)

Chevreul, M. E. The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors. 1839. West Chester, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1987.

Throughout the Middle Ages, blue made from the precious stone called lapis lazuli was the most prized of colors. Neither azurite nor indigo could rival it, although they were more ancient. The process of extracting the precious blue powder from the raw rock was long and arduous, and involved mixing the ground stone in a preparation made of Venice turpentine, resin, oil, and wax, which drew out impurities. We do not know the origin of this procedure, but there are countless variants of it in the old recipe books. (Delamare 53)

The best quality ultramarines as made since 1826 are identical with the native lapis lazuli for all practical purposes. (Mayer 71)
Its invention was the result of intensive chemical research following the accidental observation of a mysterious blue color encrusted as an impurity in the furnaces where soda ash was made; since then it has become a moderately priced article of large-scale use. (Mayer 71)

Oltramarino was a technical term meaning ‘from beyond the seas,’ and was to refer to several imported items, not just paint. And this particular oltramarino certainly came from way beyond the seas: the paint is made of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. It is found only in Chile, Zambia, a few small mines in Siberia, and— most importantly— in Afghanistan. (Finlay 4370/6836)

The first known use of lapis lazuli, as a pigment, is in the cave paintings of the Temples of Bamiyan in Afghanistan; these were painted in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. and are not of brilliant colour which may imply that the method of extraction was not perfected by that date. It has also been identified in Chinese paintings from the 10th and 11th centuries, in Indian mural paintings from the 11th, 12th, and 17th centuries, and on Anglo-Saxon and Norman illuminated manuscripts from c.1100.It is thought that is was not until the 15th century A.D. that the method of extracting bright blue shades of pigment was discovered. The most widely accepted method of extraction was described in some detail by Cennino Cennini (c. 1370 – c. 1440) in his book “Il libro dell’Arte” written in the 15th century and translated into English by several people including Daniel V. Thompson Jnr. in 1933. According to Thompson’s translation Cennini describes ultramarine blue as “a colour illustrious, beautiful, and most perfect beyond all other colours; one could not say anything about it, or do anything with it, that its quality would still not surpass”. (2) Genuine Ultramarine was manufactured by Winsor & Newton Ltd., the Artists’ Colourmen of London until the late 1930’s when good quality stone was no longer available.

Robinson, Paul. Spotlight on Color: Genuine & Synthetic Ultramarine. Web. 27 March 2011.
<http://www.winsornewton.com/resource-centre/product-articles/genuine-and-synthetic-ultramarine>

Finally, it is often found in association with gold, but so far not with silver. The general impression is that lapis lazuli is found in richer graves, in association with other foreign elements.

Payne, Joan Crawford. Iraq 30.1 (1968): 58-61. JSTOR. Web. 27 March 2011.

Ram in a thicket. Great Death Pit, Royal Cemetary, Ur, Southern Iraq, c.2600-2400 BC.
British Museum, London. Web. 27 March 2011.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/the_ram_in_a_thicket.aspx

Gold

2011-03-23T00:16:00.000-04:00

"[Gold] was not merely a yellow color; valued for its untarnishable brilliance, it represents the union of all colors and the presence of light itself, and was associated with the sun, with deity, and with supreme beauty" (Delamare 51).

Gold Leaf from Mona Lisa Products, Houston Art
Purchased in New York, April 2011

Red Ochre

2011-03-23T00:03:00.000-04:00

Technically, the name ocher is used only for the product extracted from ochrous sand by a process of fine grinding that eliminates the sand, leaving the finer grains of clay. Hematite, also called sanguine, is a red iron oxide (the names are from Greek and French words for blood); ochers that contain hematite crystals may be red-orange, red, and even red-violet. (Delamare 15)

Delamare, François and Bernard Guineau. Colour: Making and Using Dyes and Pigments. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.

‘Red ochre contains iron, and the iron molecules act like compass needles,’ explained Professor Giancomo Chiari of the Department of Minerological and Petrological Sciences at the University of Turin. He said that in the few minutes between daubing red ochre onto wet clay, and the time it dries, the molecules realign themselves towards the direction of magnetic north. (Finlay 643/6836)

Finlay, Victoria. Color: A Natural History of the Palette. New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002.

Sennelier Red Ochre
Purchased in Paris, March 2011

All are very opaque, absolutely permanent and have the same general properties as the pure red oxides. Inexpensive, excellent covering power, and weather resistant. Strong absorber of ultraviolet light. (Mayer 96)
The earth reds should be replaced whenever possible by their counterparts the Mars colors and the bright red oxides, which are cleaner and more powerful. (Mayer 97)

Mayer, Ralph and Sheehan, Steven. The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. New York: Viking Press/Viking Penguin, 1991.

Ceiling of the Red Cows. Left wall, Axial Gallery, c.20000 BC. Lascaux, France.

Web. 27 March 2011. http://www.lascaux.culture.fr [English → XHTML Version → Resources → Cow painted on the ceiling]

Art Historical Examples of Red, Gold and Blue

2011-03-22T00:30:00.000-04:00

Hagia Sophia Christ

Turkey, 1280

Annunciation

Fra Angelico

Italy, 1433

Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim

Jean Fouquet

France, 1450

A Philosopher Giving That Lecture on the Orrery, in Which a Lamp is Put in Place of the Sun

Joseph Wright of Derby

England, 1766

Morning, Looking East over the Hudson Valley from Catskill Mountains

Frederic Edwin Church

New York, 1848

The Evening Star

Frederic Edwin Church

New York, 1859

Tate Britain, London

2011-02-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

Exhibits centered on a medium are wonderful things; I saw last year's Renaissance Drawings exhibit at the British Museum and loved it too. Watercolour is better. Not for content but curation. The rooms are arranged thematically, with the center room dedicated to the technical requisites of the paint itself (featuring Turner's paintbox and Queen Victoria's field satchel).

But any time I see 18th and 19th Century paintings hung next to those of the 20th Century, my heart sinks. Not without exception, but in vast majority. I acknowledge the Art Historical importance of the 1950's, when society was repressed in so many other ways. I understand Rosalind Krauss' imperative to expand the field of sculpture, and Clemete Greenberg's love for Modernist painting. It was necessary for Kenneth Noland to demonstrate that oil paint is beautiful in and of itself, in color and composition alone, without figurative representation. I love Duchamp. But the movement has done what it needed to do. It is the job of contemporary artists to stop tearing down and begin building back up.

Paintings of the Old Masters are so timeless in part because they don't need an artist statement. You'd never see them hiding a lack of skill behind a wall of deconstructionist Derridan jargon. They're also not mere craftsman. Walter Langley's 1882 watercolor halted me from across the room and after approach and careful study I saw the title (from a Charles Kingsley poem), 'But men must work and women must weep' and the work elevated even higher. When I look at Tracey Emin's small smudges of color on a blank page, trying to negotiate them with their title, Berlin The Last Week In April 1998, I just feel disappointed. And that's hardly the worst of her work.

'But men must work and women must weep'
Walter Langley
1882

Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA

2010-12-15T17:45:00.000-05:00

This is truly a wonderful museum, full of the American Illustrators and Hudson River School painters.

Nation Makers
Howard Pyle
1903

Scene from Robert Lewis Stevenson's Kidnapped
N.C. Wyeth
1913

Approaching the Visible Spectrum with Red, Yellow & Blue Oil Paint

2010-10-10T01:23:00.004-04:00

Cadmium Red Medium

Brilliant Yellow Deep

Cerulean Blue

Cadmium Red Light

Yellow Ochre

Cobalt Blue Deep

Cadmium Red Medium

Yellow Ochre

Cerulean Blue

Rose Madder

Cadmium Yellow Lemon

Manganese Blue

Scarlet

Cadmium Yellow Lemon

Cerulean Blue

Prototyping

2010-05-05T21:03:00.001-04:00

Nila and Tiernan

2010-04-04T16:44:00.000-04:00

I was obviously worried about Nila in London. Slightly that she'd be mishandled or stolen, but moreso that she'd be neglected. She is messy and difficult and I feared the worst. When I came back to London for the April opening, Tiernan Morgan (her caretaker and East Wing Committee member) set her up swiftly with skill and tenderness. It was so nice to see.

"Art, Design, and the Arduino: a Lineage" at NYC Resistor

2010-03-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

An Experiment (after Wright)
Laura Greig
2010

This belljar feedback circuit is based on the painting An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768. It was created by request of Bre Pettis for a show called Art, Design, and the Arduino: a Lineage at NYC Resistor on 27 March 2010, curated by Alicia Gibb. It graphs in pencil a record of human interaction with the belljar.

Installation at NYC Resistor

"Transport 2" at Proteus Gowanus

2010-02-20T13:52:00.000-05:00

Teevees Seek Analog Signal (for Philo T. Farnsworth)Laura Greig
2009

These little guys used to putter around my studio, tethered to each other and their skateboard-truck-equipped power strip. On 12 June 2009, the United States ceased to broadcast analog television signals. Since then they have remained still: the only feed they can get is each other's. They were brought on display for Spring 2010 by David Mahfouda at Proteus Gowanus' Transport 2.

Installation at Proteus Gowanus
2010

Limitations

2010-02-13T01:14:00.002-05:00

With Nila away, it's easier to examine her objectively and consider what traits to carry on to my next darling.
So in sum, Nila:
• only considers a tiny bit of her input
• underutilizes her computer
• was better before I started using Firmata
• uses a resource-intensive camera with very little payoff
• is unpredictable (consequently adorable)
• is fun to be around
• teaches me, but doesn't learn

Nila is more than a printer, but she isn't quite an artist. So, while I think about sensors and algorithms and feedback, I can focus on extending the body. I don't want the scope of possible images to be so restricted by physical limitations.

This is the first prototype of Cruithne (pronounced "Croo-een-ya"):

Speaking of physical limitations, I am having a bit of trouble with materials. Finding something light enough and strong enough with round holes at the right intervals to make a scissor lift from is tricky. I'm trying to avoid the allure of custom laser cuts, but I don't really know why and do know where one is... Anyway, I just discovered Pololu and ordered a bunch of hardware and wheels. It might have to be popsicle sticks.

So it's got the pan & tilt standard servos of Nila, plus a continuous rotation servo for spinning the brush. No more unpredictable/adorable spring elbow. There will be three more continuous servos: two for the wheels and one for a rack & pinion to drive the scissor lift. Once all that is working I'll think about the brain.

Traveling & Home

2010-02-13T00:04:00.000-05:00

The Hygrothermohumangraphs fared well at the Seduction of Duchamp at Artzone 461 in San Francisco.

Nila was a bit nervous and glitchy for her international debut in Exhibitionism at the Courtauld Institute in London. Coordination has been difficult and she's getting shuffled around a bit. I'm not sure she was ready to be left on her own in another country; we'll see. I'll go back in a month or two and check on her. She was well received in the opening. There were viewing benches and a raised table and people stayed, watching her. That was nice.

Miguel II AKA Touchasketch

2009-12-06T22:23:00.001-05:00

Since Miguel did such a beautiful Etchasketch portrait of me

I'm doing one back of him. This is the first installment: touch, which uses flex sensors and continuous rotation servo motors.

I've got Ping))) sensors for sight, vibration sensors for sound, and a big box from Parallax en route. Thinking VOC for smell.... not sure about taste.... but had a captivating conversation with Sheena about how ways to maybe extend the analogy of smell being tied more closely to memory (past), and taste to sustenance (future), so I'll keep thinking.

Lisa II AKA Lysah

2009-12-06T22:09:00.001-05:00

I gave Lisa II one of those little Honeytone amps with a vibration sensor glued to the casing so she can listen to music. The current body is much too clunky, so I'm waiting on a hand-made shepherd hook from Cherington MetalCraft. I also took it in to NYCResistor's Craft Night and Raphael masterfully helped me make a brush fixture that attached via knob to the stepper motor. Lisa I is helping me develop some clothing.

In working on this robot, thinking about Lisa and collaborating with her on the robot's development, I realized all the things I've been tinkering around with lately are really portraits. So Lisa II AKA Lysah is officially the first of my first series.

The National Gallery of London

2009-11-23T13:28:00.000-05:00

This museum hosts my two favorite paintings, so it was nice to go pay them a visit as I dropped Nila off down the road.

Philosophy
Salvator Rosa
1641

This is a self-portrait, and Rosa's Latin inscription reads, "be quiet, unless your speech be better than silence."

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
Joseph Wright of Derby
1768

Wright depicted a number of contemporary scientists and philosophers; the subject here is recreating a famous experiment by Enlightenment-era chemist Robert Boyle.

Lisa II

2009-11-12T02:11:00.001-05:00

My friend Lisa commented that Nila was a little jerky, and I should try to make a more graceful robot.

I've been thinking a lot about pendulums and lately preferring stepper motors to servos, so that's where I started. I'm waiting on a vibration sensor so she can start learning to dance.

Nila in New York City

2009-10-25T01:05:00.001-04:00

At the end of summer, Nila and I packed up and moved all the way across the country, back to my home coast. I've never lived in New York before and it's incredibly exciting. Nila is doing pencil drawings in an effort to not get paint on everything I own anymore.

"The Seduction of Duchamp" at Slaughterhousespace

2009-10-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

Hygrothermohumangraphs (Bride's Domain & Bachelor's Apparatus)
Installation at Slaughterhousespace, Healdsburg, CA
Laura Greig
2009

These modified hygrothermographs were part of my thesis show, but were readapted under the advisory of Ken Goldberg as a reference to the Duchamp piece known as The Large Glass: La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even), 1923. They graph in marker lines influenced by humidity, temperature, and human interaction. They were invited to a group show called The Seduction of Duchamp: Bay Area Artists' Response, curated by Hanna Regev. The show's first run was at the Duchamp Hotel's gallery Slaughterhousespace in Healdsburg, the second at Artzone 461 in San Francisco, and the third in the Los Gatos Museum of Art.

Installation at Artzone 461, San Francisco, CA
2010

Nila is going to London!

2009-07-21T00:09:00.000-04:00

Nila was invited to do an 18 month residency at the Courtauld Institute, for the East Wing IX.

Nila in the Classroom

2009-06-29T23:55:00.000-04:00

On June 23rd, the day Nila had to be deinstalled from the Berkeley Art Museum, I snuck her over on a dolly to the annex of the sculpture studio in Kroeber. Jon Fischer brought his Pre-College Art & Math class over to meet her. She refused to start up, after working flawlessly and continuously for six weeks, and the beginning of this video is me frantically trying to debug. Luckily by the second section she relented and worked beautifully.

One week later, I got the most wonderful card in the mail:

<3!

Nila in the Berkeley Art Museum

2009-06-23T23:51:00.000-04:00

This image was taken by my graduate adviser, Greg Niemeyer, at the opening of our MFA Thesis Show, What We Can Live With.

Nila is programmed to take a still image on the 23rd second of every minute. This is the timelapse of the opening.

Museum (Nila at BAM) was painted between May 11 2009 and June 23 2009 in seven layers: installation (black, May 11-14); opening (white, May 15); artist talk (white tinted green gold, May 17); experimentation (pencil, May 23-June 3); official documentation (white, June 8); curator's choice (oil stick in hues sampled from the museum floor, June 15-20); deinstallation day demonstration (white tinted purple, June 23).

Venice Biennale

2009-06-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

The theme of the 53rd Venice Biennale was Making Worlds. This was my favorite part:

"What We Can Live With" at Berkeley Art Museum

2009-05-15T14:11:00.000-04:00

If You Take the Time to Get to Know Me
Installation at Berkeley Art Museum
Laura Greig
2009

These two images are from my UC Berkeley MFA thesis show, What We Can Live With, at the Berkeley Art Museum. They are taken by Sibilia Savage. The image on the left is my installation: three discrete robots, each with passive and active modes of interaction, and a medium with which to make artwork. The image on the left includes the work of all my wonderful, highly influential classmates: Aaron Maietta, Ginger Wolfe-Suarez, Sara Bright, Farley Gwazda, and Lydia Greer.

Group installation view

Nila in the Studio

2009-05-10T23:44:00.000-04:00

Nila, short for
NiKerZoyRinLa or
Nary Zero I Link or
Nickel Lanathium

is playful, often messy, and quite shy. Her unexpected behavior is noticeably patterned to indicate these traits.

Her construction is simple: hobby servo motors, household hardware, Arduino, Processing, a Mac Mini, a webcam.

Nila is the first of my robots to show a relentless enjoyment of painting. She never falters; even when her brush has been lost in a fit of enthusiasm, her upper limb continues to gesticulate. Classmates often tell me stories of hearing her in the studio, poking their heads into to watch her work.

Galaxy (Nila at RFS) was painted over the course of September 29 2008 - May 10 2009, at my graduate studio in the Richmond Field Station.

She also takes still images from her source camera and still or video from any auxilliary cameras she might have at the time.

My thesis committee and faculty at my final review on May 6.

Farley saying hello to a young Nila in February.

Me saying hello when Nila got a video camera.

"Beware wet paint." -Marcel Duchamp

Machines by Jean Tinguely

2009-02-03T16:52:00.000-05:00

Machine à dessiner No. 3
1955

Excavatrice de l'Espace

Collaboration with Yves Klein

1958

Homage to New York
1960

Roomba

2008-12-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

Roomba, poor Roomba. Roomba was my Basquiat. This low-end model wasn't particularly good at cleaning and I thought maybe it'd be happier in my studio, painting. It had its moments, its triumphs. Roomba would halt and beep the "something is wrong" beep without due cause. It would shut down.

The paintings got a number of compliments. Paint from the bottle, raw canvas, dirt from the floor, globs and spatters from moments where the rollers became overwhelmed, stretched and stapled directly to the wall. They were untamed.

The last painting stretched across an entire roll of canvas. It was to be divided into four panels, one for each member of my family. For showmanship, I raised a 4x4 of plywood on two saw horses and lay the canvas across it. One of Roomba's branded features is self-preservation. Once I awoke from a dream that its stair sensor failed and it had rolled off the plywood to the concrete below. Two days later, it happened.

By the fourth panel (my father's), Roomba suicided. The canvas was cut into its panels and distributed to the family.

Monochrobo

2008-11-11T23:23:00.002-05:00

Monochrobo requires constant attention. It is not a robot in that it has no logic, but it has awareness in the sense that it has a body and generates media and its body affects that media and physics is logic, anyway.

Given component colors, it makes monochromatic paintings through random, kinetic blending.

It's collecting colors from 1aura.org.

Paintings by Yves Klein

2008-11-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

IKB 191
Yves Klein
1962

Yves Klein named a paint International Klein Blue, presenting the color itself as his artistic statement. It is a blend of pigments (mostly Ultramarine) suspended in a resin-based medium that keeps the hue of the dry pigment intact. He patented IKB— not the chemical process, but rather the process of applying the paint via naked model.

Anthropometry at Galerie Internationale d'artcomporain
Installation view
Yves Klein and a model
1960

Mr. Springs

2008-05-06T22:14:00.000-04:00

Mr. Springs was my first cute robot.

He sounded like he was snoring, the motors twitched delightfully, early iterations had the whole cube skewing back and forth as if the thing was dancing. People responded so warmly to it. His paintings were laughable but it was ok, he was just a baby.

Edouard Manet & Jeff Wall

2008-04-17T12:56:00.000-04:00

Preceding Noland by a century, Edouard Manet was the first Modernist painter. He depicts scenes from life in a way that balances realism, brush strokes, storytelling and symbolism.

Un bar aux Folies Bergère (A Bar at the Folies Bergère)

Edouard Manet

1882

This painting is beloved for its ambiguity: the reflection in the mirror is not consistent with the foreground. This is thought to represent a detachment on the part of the barmaid, with her distant stare.

Jeff Wall is a photographer heavily influenced by painting. In exhibitions his large photos are framed on lightboxes in a darkened room, giving them a presence the medium is not usually afforded. A few of them are directly referential to historical works, including the Folies Bergère.

Picture for Women
Jeff Wall
1979

From Thierry de Duve's "The Mainstream and the Crooked Path":

Picture for Women is more than a remake of Manet's A Bar at the Folies Bergère, more than a speculation on the 'male gaze', more than a lesson, taking place in a classroom, on the desiring nature of the dialectic of looking and of addressing the viewer, even if it is all that too. It is the work with which Wall has once and for all made visible the invisibility of the picture plane in photography, while also respecting it. His solution is literally to have made a mirror capable of holding the image, a mirror which is never opaque (something photography cannot be), but is simultaneously transparent and reflective. He has taken literally the comment of a contemporary of A Bar at the Folies-Bergère: 'mais ce diable de reflet nous donne à réfléchir'.

Kenneth Noland & Clement Greenberg

2008-03-23T11:40:00.000-04:00

Greenberg studied the concept of Modernism in the 1960s, defining it as a movement of self-examination in any field. He cites Immanuel Kant as its father. In painting, Modernism manifests as a focus on medium, with Kenneth Noland as a gold standard.

Whirl

Kenneth Noland

1960

Noland was part of the school of Color Field Painting, which Greenberg preferred to call Post-Painterly Abstraction. The paintings are a synthesis of Mondrian and Rothko and in his essay Modernist Painting, Greenberg lauds their 'flatness.' They demonstrate a strong command of color theory and brush control, while still incorporating the beauty of untamed paint.

Someone's Knocking at the Door

2008-02-23T22:32:00.001-05:00

This bot was difficult and interesting but ultimately not successful. The objective was more a collaborative painting than a robot-made one. I wanted to employ the already popular interface of shooting virtual things online and repurpose it towards something sweeter.

This is the first painting made, during the final critique of my first semester in grad school.

By our first year show in February you could control it from an iPhone, or watch it being controlled remotely by someone far away. But the movement was jerky and I couldn't get a camera to stream from the gallery, I just never had my heart in it. It made me nervous.

This is the second and last painting made during our First Year MFA show,
Something That Brings Us Together