The Robotic Morphologies project explored human–machine interaction, inviting visitors at the Istanbul Design Biennial to contribute to the evolution of a sculptural frieze, or separator.
The project borrowed from the concept of the Thieri Foulc’s 2D-rule-based Morpholo Game, which involves a series of tiles that are arranged variously to create an overall pattern, and the idea of designing a separator that emerges from a rule-based game. The separator was designed through a novel computational workflow, and was built using an industrial robotic arm and a stationary hot-wire cutter end-effector.
The installation involved the basic element of a cube. An interactive display of the rule-based game allowed visitors to change parameters that would then inform the final forms of the cubes. Once the final form of the cube was cut by the robot, the visitor then added it to the separator installation.
Since 2018, the UQ Architectural Robotics and QUT Design Robotics teams have collaborated to produce works that implement robotic fabrication through creative and intuitive methods.
This project was designed with Master of Architecture students.
Robotic Morphologies cube cutting
| Lead researchers | UQ: Dr Frederico Fialho Teixeira QUT: Associate Professor Muge Belek Fialho Teixeira, Associate Professor Jared Donovan, Professor Glenda Caldwell, Dr Alan Burden |
| Project partners | Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, QUT Design Robotics |