Abstract 

Keywords: Soft Robotics, Soft Robots, Robotic Art, Bio-Inspiration, Materiality, Ecology.

This paper presents exploratory research on the materiality, aesthetics and ecological potential of soft robots. Within the still emergent paradigm of soft robotics research, bio-inspiration is often hailed as being of central importance. The paper argues that soft robotics should equally be seen as giving prominence to materiality and the enactive and processual potential of soft matter. The paper excavates different notions of materiality within media art that uses soft robots and in technical soft robotics re- search practices and discourses. Against this background, the author’s own practice-based experiments with soft robots are presented.

• Jonas Jørgensen, PhD student, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, is trained as a physicist (BSc) and an art historian (BA, MA). He is currently a PhD fellow at the IT University of Copenhagen with a project that focuses on the intersection of robotic technology with art and aesthetics. Jonas is also a practicing media artist. In 2016 his collaborative artistic work was exhibited in Denmark, Norway and Finland under the Hybrid Matters project.              hybridmatters.net   pure.itu.dk/portal/en/persons/jonas-joergensen(8758dd24-d86a-4dab-be44-fa4e9e903141).html

Full text (PDF) p. 153-160