IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2019 - 104

c o l laborative
projects, but the
professional artof exhibition, the
ist Michel De
Broin quickly
artists were invited
broke the glass
to discussions with
ceiling, stating
that new technoengineers in a fulllogical products,
day forum.
specifically in robotics, are éphéméride while art
can make them eternal. This may not
have been an opinion shared by the
whole group, but it set the tone.
After three days

Prof. Ken Golberg recalled that his
remote-controlled garden ran for years,
far longer than planned, pushing the
limits of the technology in terms of
both robustness and expected results.
Boris Verkhovsky, from Cirque du
Soleil, emphasized that the robustness
of a robotic system and its complacency with repetitive tasks are what
make it boring for live performances.
As a challenge to the engineers, he
suggested one should design a humanoid that stands perfectly still for the
whole Circus show but then, at the
end, extends its arms to catch a falling

Figure 2. The group of panelists at the Expressive Motions forum (from left): Michel De
Broin, Ken Golberg, Jean-Paul Laumond, Heather Knight, Boris Verkhovsky, and Bill Vorn.
(Source: IEEE; used with permission.)

acrobat, which would make the robotic
performance surprising each time.
Prof. Jean-Paul Laumond raised the
hypothesis that engineers' approach
to robotic motion may be misguided:
instead of using it as a means to reach a
goal, motion should be the matter, and
an artistic one. This rich discussion was
a mere introduction to the abundant
exchanges among presenters and the
forum audience all day.
The art program carried a student
component similar to the main ICRA
program. The six curated student artworks were open to the public all three
days. Visitors from the general public
and the conference merged in front of
these pieces (see Figure 3).
In the end, the most stirring event
of the program was its keynote. Anouk
Wipprecht's speech generated enormous enthusiasm from the audience:
fans were still gathered around her for
an hour after her talk had ended. Eminent researchers in robotics approached her to exchange ideas on novel
wearable interfaces. This proves again
that we seek beauty beyond utility.
The 2019 ICRA-X: Robotic Art Program was a great journey. It was born
thanks to the belief of the ICRA Organizing Committee and IEEE support. We all
feel that the time has come for engineers
to collaborate more with artists in their
research, and we hope to see more such
contributions in upcoming conferences
and journal issues. If we are marching
toward a future machine-led world,
maybe we want it to be a beautiful utopia, rather than a machinic dystopia.
Acknowledgment
I would like to acknowledge the constant
support and perspicacity of professor and
artist Nicolas Reeves over the last 15 years.

Figure 3. A group of conference attendees and members of the general public watch a
magic ball drawing in the sand: "Pufferfish by Molly." (Source: Charlotte G. Ghomeshi;
used with permission.)

104

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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SEPTEMBER 2019

David St-Onge, École de Technologie
Supérieure, Montréal, Canada. Email:
david.st-onge@etsmtl.ca.
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2019

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