1.
I googled “eflux soft robot” (e-flux is a leading online art publication platform), and one of the first results was this – https://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8443/ws/portalfiles/portal/173378022/PhD_Thesis_Final_Version_Jonas_J_rgensen.pdf
“Constructing Soft Robot Aesthetics:
Art, Sensation, and Materiality in Practice”
PhD thesis, Submitted to the IT University of Copenhagen, May 16 2019 by Jonas Jørgensen
I only skimmed through it, seems super relevant. Was surprised to realize, through this thesis, that Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds (1966) can be thought of as an early soft robotics work –
״Given that most silicone-based soft robotic artworks are actuated with pneumatics, inflatables
within 1960s and 1970s media art can also be considered art historical predecessors of
contemporary soft robotic artworks.” (page 19)
There are a lot of wonderful references and examples of soft robotics in art, architecture, fashion, etc.
According to his website – https://jonasjoergensen.org/critical-making/works/ – he is also an artist, working mainly in collaborations – example of soft robot he created with Mads Bering Christiansen (2020) – https://youtu.be/dQ5FZLPRpLc
2.
Not sure if it’s a soft robot (?), but feels relevant –
Or Ariely | Under My Disgusting Skin, installation (Tel Aviv, 2021)
Installation, includes a kinetic sculpture (Arduino) – a silicon hand that moves according to the audience presence
Text: “Over a decade ago, Ariely underwent gastrointestinal surgery by a state-of-the-art robot. Shortly after his recovery, he discovered that he is the subject of a news item that included documentation from the operating room without his explicit consent, as in a 19th century surgical theater where surgeries were performed before a live audience. The installation addresses the artist’s biographic trauma and the body as an autonomous object; the state of a living body without consciousness and that of disembodied consciousness, both of which belong to one another.”
Images (documentation) – https://www.facebook.com/bezalelMFA/posts/4125769124150779 https://www.instagram.com/p/CPr5b8Lr-rV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
3.
Also not a soft robot, but maybe relevant – Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself
La Biennale di Venezia, Central Pavilion, Giardini, 2019
Text: “The Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu participate in the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice with their work “Can’t Help Myself” (2016). For this piece, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu use a Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber, cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors, and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame. Info text (Guggenheim): In this work commissioned for the Guggenheim Museum, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu employ an industrial robot, visual-recognition sensors, and software systems to examine our increasingly automated global reality, one in which territories are controlled mechanically and the relationship between people and machines is rapidly changing. Placed behind clear acrylic walls, their robot has one specific duty, to contain a viscous, deep-red liquid within a predetermined area. When the sensors detect that the fluid has strayed too far, the arm frenetically shovels it back into place, leaving smudges on the ground and splashes on the surrounding walls. The idea to use a robot came from the artists’ initial wish to test what could possibly replace an artist’s will in making a work and how could they do so with a machine. They modified a robotic arm, one often seen on production lines such as those in car manufacturing, by installing a custom-designed shovel to its front. Collaborating with two robotics engineers, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu designed a series of thirty-two movements for machine to perform. Their names for these movements, such as “scratch an itch,” “bow and shake,” and “ass shake,” reflect the artists’ intention to animate a machine. Observed from the cage-like acrylic partitions that isolate it in the gallery space, the machine seems to acquire consciousness and metamorphose into a life-form that has been captured and confined in the space. At the same time, for viewers the potentially eerie satisfaction of watching the robot’s continuous action elicits a sense of voyeurism and excitement, as opposed to thrills or suspense. In this case, who is more vulnerable: the human who built the machine or the machine who is controlled by a human? Sun Yuan & Peng Yu are known for using dark humor to address contentious topics, and the robot’s endless, repetitive dance presents an absurd, Sisyphean view of contemporary issues surrounding migration and sovereignty. However, the bloodstain-like marks that accumulate around it evoke the violence that results from surveilling and guarding border zones. Such visceral associations call attention to the consequences of authoritarianism guided by certain political agendas that seek to draw more borders between places and cultures and to the increasing use of technology to monitor our environment. (Xiaoyu Weng)”
Video documentation – https://youtu.be/ZS4Bpr2BgnE
4.
Also found this through e-flux – https://epfl-pavilions.ch/exhibitions/nature-of-robotics
2/2 5. Just remembered – video artist Jon Rafman, known for incorporating esoteric found footage from the internet into his works, referencing ״Utterance robot finally got the same voice as humans״ https://youtu.be/HmSYnOvEueo in his video work “Erysichthon” (2015) https://www.ubu.com/film/rafman_erysichthon.html
Also – Paul McCarthy, “Mechanical Pig“ (2005) -https://youtu.be/VFhQD0Qxv8E