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'Smart art' brings Maori sculptures to life
In a union of art and science, smart materials combined with robotic technologies are being used to make Maori kowhaiwhai (painted designs) come alive.
Pulsing koru
IRL Engineering Innovations scientists Dr Emilio Calius and Dr Chee Kit Wong have been awarded a $33,000 grant from Creative New Zealand’s Smash Palace fund to work in collaboration with Maori artist Katherine Ngatai (known as KatyPie) on the first stage of a project utilising electroactive polymers as artificial muscles in moving sculptures.
The goal is a 3-D object capable of moving in a natural, life-like manner that responds to human inputs, inspiring a new type of kinetic sculpture.
Also commonly known as artificial muscles, EAP[?] are soft, malleable, aesthetically realistic, and most importantly, capable of lifelike movements, such as the swimming motion of a fish or the beating of a heart.
The project will exploit artificial muscle actuation and sensing technologies to inject the breath of life into art through motion. And not just simple motion but rather free-form deformations that can respond to external stimuli, including human interaction in various forms.
As a result, this active art should be capable of considerably richer behaviours than most previous kinetic art.
Engineering Innovations Team Leader Patrick Lim says that the intention is to apply these capabilities to Maori art objects and patterns, infusing them with artificial life and allowing them to create an innovative artistic narrative.
“Maori believe in the ‘wairua’, or life-force, and the idea of an artwork potentially containing its own literal ‘life-force’ is new and exciting. Part of the research will be to assess the philosophical and spiritual ramifications to the Maori of having their art objects and patterns imbued with artificial life.”
This work will also contribute to the advancement of a particular type of artificial muscle technology known as dielectric elastomer actuators, whose performance is comparable, if not better in some respects, says Patrick, to that of natural skeletal muscle.
“Emilio and Kit will focus on channelling that performance through self-sensing, control, and co-ordination of actuator arrays. These are key issues for many applications including lightweight and mobile robotics, as well as prosthetics.
“There is still much to learn about the coupled electro-mechanics and emergent behaviour of multi-actuator artificial muscle systems, and this project offers a fertile area for knowledge expansion.”
See Live Sculptures and Soft Machines blog for more information.
Release Date:
29 October, 2009