Art is subjective. For example, if someone showed me a painting and told me it was done by a machine, I'd have a tough time considering that art. However, there might be many people out there who would feel the opposite. For me, there's a human element in art that can't be replicated by a machine.

That's why I found Ben Grosser's Interactive Painting Machine so interesting. It challenges my ideals about what can be considered art.

Ben designed a robot that actually makes decisions about what to paint. By interacting with its environment, it creates a unique work of abstract art. The resulting paintings are somewhat crude, and nothing I'll be hanging on my walls anytime soon. However, what gets me is the concept as a whole--a machine made to decide and respond, creating unique artworks based on sounds, from music to conversations to direct input.

Take a look at this video showing the machine responding to a violin performance:



The creation and design of this machine, as well as the work it produces, is Character Approved because it challenges our notions of what can be considered art, as well as who creates it.

[Image: Ben Grosser]