Continuous Line Robots and Art
A continuous line drawing made into a wire bird.Copyright 2015 Carrie Beth Rykowski, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Students use the robot paths they documented during the associated Robots on Ice Engineering Challenge activity to learn about and then make artwork. During the previous activity, students recorded the path of their robots through a maze in order to collect data during a remote research simulation. Now, they take a new look at the robot paths, seeing them from an art perspective as continuous line drawings. Students learn about Picasso’s famous works of art that used the same technique. Then they learn the artistic definition of a line and see examples of how it is used in different art pieces; they practice making continuous line drawings and then create sculptures of their drawings using colorful wire. A PowerPoint® presentation is provided to guide the activity.
In the previous activity, students completed an engineering simulation involving robots and technology—acting like real scientists and engineers while getting their robots to explore an unseen maze. In this next activity, students use the results of their simulations to create art. Engineers not only require traditional technical knowledge and skillsets, they must also be highly creative and attuned to the aesthetics of their designs. In this activity, students experience the intersection of engineering and art, as they create art from their continuous line robot maze navigations.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define a line.
- Create continuous line drawings.
- Provide facts about Pablo Picasso and his artwork.