LABOR: Production of a Large-scale Painting with a Robot

Labor is a live human/robot painting installation that combines generative graphics techniques, robotic automation and traditional painting methods. It explores the role of embodied intelligence in artistic production. The resulting composition is a large-scale painting consisting of multiple individually painted tiles. The painting is based on an electron microscope image of a placenta, which is algorithmically processed into a series of parametric brushstrokes using a differentiable vector graphics pipeline. These strokes are then collaboratively painted using a 7-axis robotic arm equipped with custom paintbrushes. The project engages with the dual meaning of ''labor'': industrial production and childbirth, highlighting the often-overlooked importance of bodily knowledge in the arts but particularly in medical and technological contexts. The installation explores the balance between human intuition and algorithmic automation, emphasizing the importance of material constraints and the role of human artists in the creation a large-scale generative painting.