Patrick Tresset – EACVA: Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art

Patrick Tresset
RESPONSIVE EMBODIED SYSTEM FOR LIVE SKETCHING EXPLORATION

Personal Biography

Patrick Tresset is a contemporary artist best known for his performative installations, drawings, and generative computational works. His work explores the representation of human experience using computational systems, AI, robotics, and traditional media.

Tresset studied at Goldsmiths College in London. His work has been exhibited in association with major museums worldwide, including the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Prada Foundation in Milan, the Tate Modern and the V&A in London, MMCA in Seoul, the Grand Palais in Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, TAM in Beijing, Mcam in Shanghai, and the Mori Museum in Tokyo.

Tresset’s works are included in the V&A collections in London, Maison D’ailleurs museum, Mcam in Shanghai, Guerlain Foundation in Paris, and New Arts Foundation in Barcelona. His installations have been awarded prizes and distinctions, including Lumens, Ars Electronica, NTAA, and Japan Media Festival. His works have been featured in numerous media, including Art Press, Art Review, Beaux Arts, Frieze, Arte, Form, Wired, Vice, BBC, DeWelle, Le Monde, and The New York Times.

Although he has exclusively focused on his artistic practice for the last decade, his past research is referenced in over 300 academic publications, including drawing, psychology, AI, robotics, and computational graphics.

Patrick Tresset – Image by **Ara Art Centre Seoul**

PROJECT

I have been working with robotics for 14 years, initially to investigate the drawing practice. However, for the past ten years, I have focussed on developing and exhibiting installations where the drawings are the traces of live performances. Although very important, the research into drawing had become secondary. My robot-made drawings have aesthetic effects akin to human-made ones, but there is an absence. To return to investigating drawing practices and reintroduce the artist’s presence, the research I plan for the EACVA project aims to develop a reactive robotic system that enables figurative sketching explorations. In other words, a semi-autonomous instrument that is both playable and tamable, a system that reacts in real-time to human-made traces and movements. The project is supported by the robotic components manufacturer ROBOTIS (www.robotis.com)

PAST 6 MONTHS PROGRESS

There has been progress in different directions.
The new arm prototyping has gone through a couple of iterations and the hand’s design with fingers
is finalised. A basic robotic simulator has also been developed.Extensive research and exploration has been performed to get multimodal LLMs (google-deepmindGemini) to draw. Hand drawn datasets are in progress of being built.