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State-of-the-Art Robot Helps Art Students Gain Valuable Career-oriented and Technical Skills

Anonymous gift funds large-scale robot system that combines computer modeling and animation programs with computer-aided manufacturing software

--Robot is only one of its kind at a college or university in New Jersey

A state-of-the-art, large-scale robot system that combines computer modeling and animation programs with computer-aided manufacturing software to sculpt 3D objects is now being used by students at the Center for New Art in William Paterson University’s College of the Arts and Communication thanks to a $270,100 gift from an anonymous donor.

The seven-axis KUKA Robot is capable of carving in a variety of materials, including foam, wood, and soft metals, allowing for precision sculpting of large-scale forms.  Located in the University’s Power Arts building, the robot is the first of its kind at a college or university in New Jersey. The robot has been dubbed “Blossom” by the first group of University students to use it in their work based on its resemblance to a giant unfolding mechanical flower.

“This new robotic system allows undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and visiting artists to create 3D objects using the most advanced technology available to artists in our state and beyond,” says Michael Rees, professor of art and director of the Center for New Art.  “Students can use this robot to sculpt and carve works with no limit on their imaginations, allowing them to create figures that are larger than life.”

Students will also gain valuable career-oriented creative and technological skills.  Plans also include collaborations between the Department of Art and University programs in anthropology, environmental science, business, and computer science on projects to use the robot to create three-dimensional objects that enhance student learning. For example, the department has collaborated with anthropology students to create 3D skulls of various hominids.

In addition to funding the purchase of the robot, the anonymous gift will finance color 3D printing equipment and provide enhanced programming for students, including the development of a new course, Eco Techno, that will allow student artists to combine ecology, technology, and 3D design.  The gift will also fund student residencies at Garfagnana Innovazione in Italy in conjunction with the Digital Stone Project, a New Jersey not-for-profit organization that provides opportunities for artists to employ state-of-the-art technology in creating works of art in stone.

“With the addition of the seven-axis robot to our progressive Center for New Art, William Paterson University becomes the positive flashpoint in the state for innovation and advancement in higher education transcending disciplines in the arts, humanities, and the sciences,” says Daryl Moore, dean of the College of the Arts and Communication. “It also provides a fertile environment for industry partnership opportunities in research and development.”

“This generous donation has enabled us to explore new possibilities in artistic creation and further establish the Center for New Art as a leading presence in the emerging art world,” says Rees.  “We are grateful to have a supporter who shares our passion for art at the crossroads of science and technology.”

Rees, who joined the faculty in 2008, has worked with new media in his sculpture since the early 1990s. He is one of the first sculptors in the world to embrace the use of computer-aided design, 3D printing, and automated manufacture and blend it into a conceptual art practice. His works have been included in numerous exhibitions, including the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition Out of Hand: Materializing the Post Digital. He has won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Center for New Art is an artistic hub where students, faculty, professional artists and art educators coalesce as makers, thinkers and doers exploring the convergence of art, science and technology.  With an experimental curriculum that seeks to push the boundaries of traditional sculpture, digital media and animation, the Center offers lectures, workshops, practicums, symposia and exhibitions focused on the use of technology in the arts.

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