these robot portraits are painted unguided by the human mind or eye

husband and wife artistic duo rob and nick carter take on digital age technologies with one of their most technically pioneering projects to date. presented at london-based gallery ben brown fine arts from february 12 through april 17, 2020, ‘dark factory portraits’ poses the intriguing questions: could a machine become a painter? could it convey human personality?

while many recent experiments by AI artists have demonstrated technology’s distance from human artistic achievement, the artists focused their enquiries on the execution of the machine. together with a team of software programmers and visual effects specialists, the carters set out to explore how far and fast algorithms and robotic parts could progress towards a new creative standard. presented with a pre-existing photograph, how accomplished a painted portrait can current technology be pushed to achieve?

frida kahlo robot painting (work in progress)

the ‘dark factory portraits’ draw their name from ‘lights-out manufacturing’ — the factories that function in the dark, as robotic systems don’t need to ‘see’ what they’re doing. in the same vein, rob and nick carter have rooted the series in reports on the future workforce. according to a study in 2013 by researchers at oxford university and deloitte, 35% of UK jobs are likely to be fully automated by the mid-2030s.

detail of robot painting (work in progress)

central to this thinking was the artists’ continued urge to use technology to execute their own ideas, and paint in a style they envisioned. they worked with the programmers to layer the code so that the robot could paint both loosely and to a very high level of detail where necessary. the resulting portraits of celebrated artists such as frida kahlo, andy warhol, yoko ono and damien hirst are among the first cultural artifacts of a dawning age. visitors to the exhibition at ben brown fine arts will also be able to watch industrial robot manufacturer kuka’s famous robotic arm in action as it paints entirely unguided by the human mind and eye.

rob and nick carter with yinka shonibare robot painting