If you head down to Trafalgar Square today you can see a person drawing in Vienna.
Yes, that’s right. Even though the artist is sitting in an art gallery in Vienna while sketching, a pen is moving in London sketching out their art.
This pen in London is attached to a robotic arm, which is in turn linked to a remote monitoring device, which then transmits the movements and motions back to the robot so it can draw out an exact copy of the sketch in near real-time.
In front of the National Gallery, at the base of Nelson’s Column and under the watchful eyes of the lions and the blue cockerel currently on the fourth plinth, you can watch the drawing happening before your very eyes.
On either side of the robot and the canvas are two video streams: One of the Viennese artist, Alex Kiessling, sketching from Ovalhalle MuseumsQuartier in Venice, and one of another robot drawing in Berlin at Breitscheidplatz.
This is an example of Long Distance art. A trio of European cities simultaneously producing the same work of art from the same artist.
This technology could extend way beyond art. The real-time motion sensor could enable many other activities to be performed long distance. And the distance doesn’t even have to be long, it could simply eliminate the need to travel if the robotic technology was in place.
When I was in the Square this morning, he was sketching three faces and the robot was doing a good job of replicating it. He will be there until 5pm this afternoon and footage is available through the Long Distance Art Facebook page.
