Jenny ShaoEver hear of a robot that paints? Better yet, one that paints like Jackson Pollack? Topher McFarland, Rahul Bhinge and John Beltz did just that for their senior design projects in the class Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 404P. The result? A robot named Action Jackson that helps to produce work that is reminiscent of the pieces of one of the most famous abstract painters in history.
The idea for Action Jackson sprang from the beginning of last semester when the class chose projects. Local businesses and professors submitted proposals for what they wanted to be built.
William Smart, McFarland’s client and a professor of computer science and engineering, was interested in machines that could perform human functions, especially in the realm of art.
“I was talking to a colleague of mine from Northwestern about Jackson Pollack. [I thought], can we get a machine to do [work like Jackson Pollack’s]? What would people’s reactions be?” said Smart.
McFarland was interested in taking on the task and spent the first part of the semester working on a conceptual design for the robot. After the conceptual drawings were finished, the class narrowed down into teams of three and worked on designing the robot. These designs involved picking parts, doing calculations and then ultimately building the system.
McFarland recalls this time and says that one sacrifice that he and his colleagues had to make was to skimp on sleep, often staying awake each night until two or three in the morning. But when Action Jackson was finally finished, McFarland, his group members, and Smart were satisfied with the result.
“I am absolutely delighted,” said Smart. “I think the guys did an awesome job.”
In addition to impressing Smart, Action Jackson has inspired philosophical questions.
“[This project] brings to mind the idea of agency – who controls an artistic work. Can a computer have agency? I am looking for [the robot] to be like the hands of the artist. People are asking me whether this is an artist or not. That is not the point. [The robot] is meant to enable either a person or a computer to paint. The goal is for the robot to be able to be controlled by either a person or a laptop,” said McFarland.
Though he has his own ideas of what Action Jackson is meant to do, he is pleased with the amount of debate that his robot has sparked.
“It brings a lot of communities together. Artists can talk about it and [so can] engineers because of the computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical elements,” said McFarland, who emphasized that Action Jackson has also given him to the different disciplines.
McFarland is still making improvements, including using a computer-controlled paint system that can turn the paint on and off using code and to integrate a sliding drawer that will enable Action Jackson to paint on more than one axis.
Even with these plans, McFarland is keeping everything in perspective as he looks towards Action Jackson’s future.
“It’s a cool trick, and [I give it] a shelf life of a couple of years. They can use it to do research. It can allow the engineering school to have interesting discussions with the art and philosophy departments about agency. Then, hopefully other people can take it apart and use that knowledge to do something else,” he said.