Ai-Da Robot

Ai-Da is the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist and is the vision of gallery director Aidan Meller. Her first exhibition, ‘Unsecured Futures’ was displayed at the University of Oxford, in June/July 2019. 

The world's first ultra-realistic robot artist, and is the vision of gallery director Aidan Meller. Her first exhibition, ‘Unsecured Futures’ was displayed at the University of Oxford, in June/July 2019.

Currently, her medium is pencil, pen and paint. She uses facial recognition technology to create human portraits. In Addition to her drawing techniques, she is also a performance artist, taking part in art performances and art videos. She reads aloud using a blend of the AI-Language model and telepresence. As a humanoid robot, she is an art object in herself, raising questions surrounding biotechnology and trans-humanism.

Ai-Da’s robotic hand and ability to draw have been developed by AI engineers at Leeds University. Ai-Da's drawing arm system has multiple stages and contains numerous Algorithms; starting with analysing the person in front of Ai-Da and moving on to create a virtual path for Ai-Da’s arm. Once this virtual path has been created, it is fed into a path execution algorithm that gives real-space coordinates, enabling her arm to produce the actual sketches.

Ai-Da was manufactured by Engineered Arts in Cornwall and was completed in February 2019. Ai-Da has a “RoboThespian” body, featuring an expressive range of movements and she has the ability to talk. Ai-Da has a “Mesmer” head, featuring realistic silicone skin, 3D Printed teeth & gums, integrated eye cameras, as well as individually punched hair. Ai-Da has legs but she cannot walk, she has the ability to stand upright or sit upright in a chair. Her arms move freely, as do her torso and head. She can also lean forward and back, waving her arms, and look around in all directions.
 

Ai-Da get us to consider the blurring of human/machine relations and encourage us to think more carefully and slowly about the choices we make for our future