Serbian Artist Becomes a Human Paintbrush With the Help of a Robot

Serbian artist Dragan Ilic—along with a helpful robot friend—is creating works that would make the Rainbow Sponge Lady proud. His project, DI-2K4, features a number of giant canvases covered in swirled paint. Regardless of what you think of the work itself, it's the process that makes this series so interesting.

The art is created with a giant robotic arm formerly used for factory production, which carries Ilic around like a paintbrush. The artist himself is carrying a block of connected paintbrushes with different colors (which eventually blend together to create a purple hue). As the robotic arm moves the artist, he moves his own paintbrush box around, creating a collaboration between man and machine.

While this video seems like a fun example of humans and robots coexisting to create viral video magic, the artist statement speaks of something a little more grand. Ilic intends to show how man is becoming more reliant on machines and art is no longer something exclusively made by humans. As stated on the YouTube page:

"It is in this constellation in which the machine controls and steers man—as he is trying to steer and guide the trace being made over the white surface—that these robotized compositions are created (on the floor or wall), compositions which require in their very procedure the assuming of an associative perspective. Thus, the artist’s angle of view in the creative process is changed anew; therefore, the final product is subject to uncertainty precisely due to the experiencing of a different view on behalf of the spectators. By employing the procedure of the robotic execution of drawings, Ilic not only demystifies the modernist dogma of the creative act, rather he goes a step further and considers the possibility of controlling the future evolutionary development of mankind."

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.