If a sculptor creates his artwork without ever using his hands, without ever touching his material, is he truly the artist? That's the burning question behind Frederico Diaz's "Geometric Death Frequency-141," a 20-by-50 foot sculpture of 420,000 black spheres organized and assembled entirely by robots. The artist, Diaz, used CAD software (and data and algorithms based on particle physics) to cultivate the process by which the robots would, working independent of human interaction or direction, create a sculpture. The final work will be on display at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, on October 23, 2010. If you want to learn how the robots became artists, take a look at these stunning photographs and Diaz's superb series of making-of video shorts.
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Might "Frequency" prefigure a time in the not too distant future when the greatest works of art are produced by robots? Would robot creators put a rest to the starving artist stereotype?