‘City, Paint, Machine’ robot makes abstract art from traffic patterns

What does it take to automate art? Artist Krzysztof Golinski has been interviewed in Fast Co.Design about the robotic City, Paint, Machine exhibit, which carefully balances rules and randomness to make abstract paintings. A machine observes cars and pedestrians and turns that data into a predetermined pattern, but its pressure-based paint system adds an element of unpredictability. The robot certainly doesn’t have the same intent as human painters, but its interpretation of the real world evokes how all artists filter what they see and hear through their own perception and the constraints of their medium.