Drawing Operations Collaboration 2015 Drawing Operations is an ongoing collaboration between an artist and a robotic arm. The project investigates ideas of automation, autonomy, and collaboration as an exercise in behavioral empathy. Sougwen Chung and her Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1, (D.O.U.G._1) explore mimicry and procedural mark-making as a simple drawing performance between a human and mechanical agent. Alongside developer Yotam Mann, the behavior of the robotic arm was designed to mimic the drawn gesture in real time through the use of a ceiling-mounted camera and computer vision. As D.O.U.G., the robotic arm, interprets the mark of the drawing collaborator, the human agent then responds in kind, resulting in a synchronous, interpretive performance. Drawing Operations is the first stage of an ongoing study examining human and robotic interaction as an artistic collaboration. Further stages include will examine memory, autonomy, and agency. Credits Sougwen Chung, Artist In collaboration with Yotam Mann Commissioned by New Inc / New Museum New Hive Thanks to Square Fabrication, & Slanted Studios. Debuted at Rebull Studios NY. Visit the Project Page: drawingwithdoug.sougwen.com #drawingwithdoug

Sougwen Chung builds a robot to draw with her

June 02, 2016 by Arseny Vesnin in Art, USA, Portfolios, Motioncollector, 2016, Digital Art

Artist Sougwen Chung built a robot arm that draws in harmony with her in order to gain a better understanding of how humans relate to robots. With the project, dubbed "Drawing Operations Unit" (or DOUG for short), she hopes to counter the prevailing media representations of robots as adversarial to their human counterparts. Check out the video above to see Chung and DOUG in action.