Bibliography of Soft Art (S22)

The readings are a centerpiece of the course. We will together be exploring the soft robotics and art literature. Following are some suggested starting points for literature searches in the arts. The Guide to Library Resources page addresses more details of the literature search process.

The sources are categorized in the following sections with brief descriptions. The citations in the descriptions link further below to the full bibliographic references. A few papers relate to the Videos of Related Work.

In the first iteration of the course, the bibliography was quite expansive and addressed many areas of soft art. It is archived on the previous site iteration as Bibliography of Soft Art (S21)

Surveys and Overviews of Soft Robotic Art

  • Constructing Soft Robot Aesthetics. Art, Sensation, and Materiality in Practice [A8] (2019). A PhD thesis analyzing the potential for soft robotics, architecture, and sculpture to inform each other, with discussion of many relevant references.

Kinetic Soft Sculpture

Kinetic works using non-textile soft materials.

  • Nina Galić. “Kinetic sculpture with tentacles”. 2010. [A7]

  • Ingrid Bachmann [A6]. PELT (BESTIARY) [A5]. Series of kinetic interactive sculptures representing the bestial in neoprene “fur”.

Soft Architecture

Research and projects involving soft materials in architecture.

  • Pneusystems, biological cellular pneumatic systems for architectural envelopes. [A3]

    • “Nervous Ether”, 2013. Cellular pneumatic aggregates, soft architecture systems. [A11]

    • Pneusystems. Cellular pneumatic membrane-based assemblies. [A10]

  • Biokinesis: A Soft Kinetic Architectural Skin. 2015. [A9]

Soft Sculpture

Non-kinetic works using silicone and other non-textile soft materials.

  • Patricia Piccinini [A2]. Many works including hyperreal silicone sculpture.

  • Ken Rinaldo, Suckle Bots. “The Suckle Bots are a series of cuddly robots about the size of a human fetus….They are created with a soft latex pink rubber and feel like human skin.” [A4]

  • Erica Gray [A1]. A variety of soft artifacts and wearables.

  • “Hyper-realist” silicone sculpture (soft, non-kinetic)

    • Patricia Piccinini

    • Ron Mueck

    • Jamie Salmon

    • Evan Penny

    • Sam Jinks

    • Thomas Kuebler

Art References

Cited References

A1

Erica gray sculpture. URL: https://ericagrayartist.com.au/SCULPTURE%20gallery.htm (visited on 2022-01-10).

A2

Patricia Piccinini. URL: https://www.patriciapiccinini.net/ (visited on 2022-01-10).

A3

Pneusystems. February 2021. URL: http://www.rvtr.com/projects/pneusystems (visited on 2021-02-11).

A4

Suckle Bots – Ken Rinaldo. February 2021. URL: https://www.kenrinaldo.com/portfolio/suckle-bots/ (visited on 2021-02-10).

A5

Ingrid Bachmann. Pelt (bestiary). URL: http://ingridbachmann.com/projects/47 (visited on 2022-01-10).

A6

Ingrid Bachmann. Ingrid Bachmann. February 2021. URL: http://ingridbachmann.com/ (visited on 2021-02-12).

A7

Nina Galić. Kinetic sculpture with tentacles. 2010. URL: https://ninagalic.com/kinetic_sculpture_with_tentacles.html (visited on 2021-02-12).

A8

Jonas Jørgensen. Constructing Soft Robot Aesthetics. Art, Sensation, and Materiality in Practice. PhD thesis, IT University of Copenhagen, May 2019.

A9

Jae Wan Park and Ju Yeon Kim. Biokinesis: A Soft Kinetic Architectural Skin. Leonardo, 50(1):76, February 2017. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01352.

A10

Kathy Velikov, Geoffrey Thün, and Mary O'Malley. PneuSystems: cellular pneumatic envelope assemblies. In ACADIA 14: Design Agency [Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ISBN 9781926724478]Los Angeles 23-25 October, 2014), Pp. 435-444. CUMINCAD, 2014. URL: http://papers.cumincad.org/cgi-bin/works/Show?_id=acadia14_435 (visited on 2021-02-10).

A11

Kathy Velikov, Geoffrey Thün, Mary O'Malley, and Wiltrud Simbuerger. Nervous Ether: Soft Aggregates, Interactive Skins. Leonardo, 47(4):344–351, August 2014. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00839.

Other References

AO1

Claes Oldenburg, Ice Bag–Scale B, 1971. URL: https://pulitzerarts.org/feature/claes-oldenburg-ice-bag-scale-b-1971/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO2

Inside The Funhouse World Of Artist Daniel Rozin. URL: https://www.fastcompany.com/3046856/have-you-ever-seen-your-reflections-in-500-penguins (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO3

Materials: Hard + Soft Store. URL: https://dentonarts.com/materials-hard-soft-store (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO4

Pierre Huyghe. URL: https://fotografmagazine.cz/en/magazine/living-with-humans/profiles/pierra-huyghe/ (visited on 2022-02-07).

AO5

Pierre Huyghe | Zoodram 4 (2011) | Artsy. URL: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/pierre-huyghe-zoodram-4 (visited on 2022-02-07).

AO6

Soft Takeover – Andreas Lutz. URL: https://andreaslutz.com/soft-takeover/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO7

JONAS JØRGENSEN. URL: https://jonasjoergensen.org/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO8

SONŌ (2020) - YouTube. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ5FZLPRpLc (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO9

Amorphous Technicolor Blobs That Appear to Ooze From Gallery Shelves by Dan Lam. April 2016. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/04/amorphous-technicolor-blobs-that-appear-to-ooze-from-gallery-shelves-by-dan-lam/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO10

Hypnotic New Kinetic Sculptures by Anthony Howe. January 2016. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/01/hypnotic-new-kinetic-sculptures-by-anthony-howe/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO11

Ofir albag designs a study space in milan for his thesis on soft robotics. October 2017. URL: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/ofir-albag-study-space-milan-thesis-soft-robotics-10-25-2017/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO12

A Kinetic Sculpture Built from over 600 Parts Gracefully Imitates a Swimming Sea Turtle. November 2018. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/11/sea-turtle-kinetic-sculpture-by-derek-hugger/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO13

New Multi-Colored Sculptural Blobs Covered in Spongy Spikes by Dan Lam. August 2018. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/08/new-multi-colored-sculptural-blobs-by-dan-lam/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO14

Undulating Kinetic Sculpture by Julia Nizamutdinova Mimics Intertwined Infinity Signs. March 2020. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/03/julia-nizamutdinova-kinetic-sculpture/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO15

A Monumental Collection of Slouching Figures Considers the Effects of Aging on the Body. February 2021. URL: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/02/nicole-havekost-felt-sculptures/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO16

Laurie Bailey. DeepLocal machine turns selfies into 15-foot balloon portraits. October 2014. URL: https://nextpittsburgh.com/business-tech-news/deeplocal-turned-selfies-into-15-foot-portraits-made-of-balloons/ (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO17

Carlos Roberto Barrios Hernandez. Thinking parametric design: introducing parametric Gaudi. Design Studies, 27(3):309–324, May 2006. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2005.11.006.

AO18

Mads Bering Christiansen and Jonas Jørgensen. Augmenting Soft Robotics with Sound. In Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI '20, 133–135. New York, NY, USA, March 2020. Association for Computing Machinery. doi:10.1145/3371382.3378328.

AO19

Ece Polen Budak, Onur Zirhli, Adam A. Stokes, and Ozge Akbulut. The Breathing Wall (BRALL)—Triggering Life (in)animate Surfaces. Leonardo, 49(2):162–163, April 2016. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01199.

AO20

Lynn Hyun Kieffer and Paul Nicholas. Soft actuated material: Exploration of a programmable composite. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 19(1):50–66, March 2021. doi:10.1177/1478077120957527.

AO21

Hinda Mandell. `Monstrous' craft activism: A city yarn installation that wrought controversy through textile togetherness and community engagement. Craft Research, 12(1):31–50, March 2021. doi:10.1386/crre_00039_1.

AO22

Francois Mangion and Becky Zhang. Furl: Soft Pneumatic Pavilion | Interactive Architecture Lab. URL: http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/lab-projects/furl-soft-pneumatic-pavilion (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO23

Michael Morgan, Robert Lang, Spencer Magleby, and Larry Howell. Towards developing product applications of thick origami using the offset panel technique. Mechanical Sciences, 7:69–77, March 2016. doi:10.5194/ms-7-69-2016.

AO24

Anuradha Vikram. Art with a Dose of Imperialism: Pierre Huyghe at LACMA. February 2015. URL: http://hyperallergic.com/181315/art-with-a-dose-of-imperialism-pierre-huyghe-at-lacma/ (visited on 2022-02-07).

AO25

M. Wihart. The Architecture of Soft Machines. Doctoral, UCL (University College London), June 2015. URL: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1469447/ (visited on 2022-02-06).

AO26

Güvenç Özel. CYPHER. 2018. URL: http://www.ozeloffice.com/home#/cypher/ (visited on 2022-02-07).

AO27

Peter Putz. Paul McCarthy Mechanical Pig. July 2019. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFhQD0Qxv8E (visited on 2022-02-02).

AO28

VernissageTV. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can't Help Myself. May 2019. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS4Bpr2BgnE (visited on 2022-02-02).