The Serbian-Australian-American artist Dragan Ilic, born in Belgrade, is the author of the D1-2K4 project, where the robot uses the painter’s body as a brush.
Industrial robots generate movements with great precision since they program trajectories and adjust movements in real time, which is how the artist develops his work.
One of the reasons why artists continue to use robots to develop their work is because technology creatively offers them new alternatives for analysis between robotics and art.
The robotic unit developed by the D1-2K4 project is a Kuka KR 210+ DI, reconditioned for heavy loads. According to Dragan, it is an “interaction that is based primarily on the need to overcome the limitations of the human body.”
Basically, the artist is tied to his assistant (the robot) and through a harness he is lifted and moved by the industrial robot while painting a canvas with the help of a base that includes a large number of brushes; he leaves traces that occasionally mix to create a purple hue. As the robotic arm moves the artist, he moves his own box of brushes, which causes an artistic connection to flow between the man and the robot. The author’s technique is carried out following a routine of movements that the artist experiences based on his own experience.
According to the artist Ilic of the DI-2K4 project, it aims to be a statement about the repetitiveness of industrial production, as well as the increasing subjugation of humans to machines.
“The metamorphosis of the artistic work is located at a point where human activity and the machine intersect,” says Ilic, reflecting on the state of art today. This results in an interaction that it is essentially based on the need to transcend the limitations of the human body.
Dragan Ilic is one of the artists and researchers who exceeded expectations in terms of technology and art, by providing new methods for creating different art forms.
It is said that the artist is working on a new project where he seeks to control the movements of the robot through the use of technology that can be manipulated with his thoughts, that is, interfaces that are controlled from the brain and connected to a computer, which executes the movements of the robot.
It is a man-machine collaboration, where the artist conveys the idea that technology will be increasingly present in the creation of works of art and this will be beneficial and, apparently, fun.