Leonel Moura [cv]
A New Kind of Art | Robot Art | Artificial Life | Non-human art | Artificial Creativity


Science solves problems. Art makes problems.


Spotlight
RAP [Robotic Action Painter]
Robotarium

European Ambassador for Creativity


GALLERY | ART WORKS | TEXTS | BOOKS | ARCHITECTURE | | | | | | | | [Site em português ]


NEWS

      

Robot Poetry
This is the first book published with poems actually written by an autonomous robot. Much in the style of the automatic poetry, the generation of the poems, and above all its manifestation, is however completely different. The robot builds the poem over time and writes it in a sheet of paper. The result is both textual and graphical.
The book contains 30 poems (in Portuguese language) written by the robot ISU and is edited by the Water Museum, Coimbra.



Tavira's Grand Robotarium
From the moment I did the first Robotarium I have wished to build a new one, larger, with more functionalities and a new philosophy. The City of Tavira, in Algarve, has supported the project that was now public launched.
The Robotarium will have at the ground floor a Reception, a Shop, a small Museum of Robotics, a Lab, a Robot Hospital, offices and a Cafeteria. The first floor will be occupied by the Robotarium itself.
Tavira's Grand Robotarium will be very different from the previous undertaking and not only in size.It will present autonomous robots from all over the world and from very different sources, as Universities, private companies, research centers or any independent creator that wants to test and show their machines. Hence it is expect that the Robotarium will constitute a kind of testbed for the development of autonomous robots projects.
For a non conventional project I have tried to create a non conventional building. After several attempts I have finally achieved a plan that combines audacity with the background of the project itself. In fact, the structure of the first Robotarium has been based in the non-uniform geometry of what is known by the "Johnson solids". Tavira's Robotarium pursues the same idea but now by combining several of these solids.



ART SPACE


The Gallery is moving to LxFactory...


Gallery contact
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ART WORKS | ROBOT ART | NON-HUMAN ART | ARTIFICIAL CREATIVITY



Portable Robotaria, 2009
Series of lab_like displays containing "insect robots".
[More...]

Wire Paintings, 2008
A new series of paintings made of electrical wires and small robots mounted on canvas and Plexiglas.

AIR [Art Insect Robots], 2008
Installation
50 cricket-like small robots imprisoned in droplet glass shapes create a kind of jungle sound environment.
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Alive!, 2007
Electric Life
Alive! installation presents robots as a new kind of life. Still an essential electrical and electronic based life, but able to raise questions about life, intelligence, culture and art.
Alive! is made out of 20 small robots, coined Aractrons, that react to the presence of humans and interact with each other in a swarm fashion.
[More...]
Robotarium X, 2007
The first robot zoo in the world. Conceived as an art installation for a public garden it is constituted by a large glass structure containing 45 autonomous and self-sustained robots.
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TARA, The Interactive Art Robot, 2007
Tara is my first interactive painter robot. Visitors can change some parameters and watch its effect on the painting process. Tara was created exclusively for the Pavilion of Knowledge / Ciência Viva, Lisbon, Portugal.
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New Tree of Life
, 2007
Robots as a new life branch.
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ISU, The Poet Robot, 2006
Named after Isidore Isou the creator, back in the 50’s, of the French movement known as the 'Letrisme', ISU is able to draw letters and words and from there generate pictorial compositions.
Like in lettrism, which campaign for the use of the letter as the basis of a new art form, ISU generates by itself a series of letters and words that may or may not trigger on the viewer meaning.
These references to 20th century art movements do not seek any kind of historical legitimacy, but are intended simply to show how certain morphogenesis processes produce similar results in human as well as non-human artists.
[More...]

RAP [Robotic Action Painter], 2006
My painting robots generate art works based on emergence. The essential of those creations is based on the machine own interpretation of the world and not on its human description. No previous plan, fitness, aesthetical taste or artistic model are induced. The robots are just machines dedicated to their art.
[More...]

RAP [Robotic Action Painter] at Architect Magazine

RAP [Robotic Action Painter] at Itau Cultural, São Paulo, Brasil

RAP [Robotic Action Painter] and Artificial Creativity

DADA 2.0, The iconoclast robot, 2006
Dada 2.0 intends to reflect the destructive character of robotics, as clever machines raises new questions about humanity, intelligence, culture and art, and furthermore, embodies a new kind of life that confronts mankind fears and expectations.
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iSculpture [intelligent Sculpture], 2005
An art work able to recognize the presence of viewers and interact with them by approaching and determine the size of their bodies. iSculpture inverts the traditional relation between spectator and art objects, as in this case it is the work of art that observes the human viewer.
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GPS Paintings, 2004...
An ongoing project with the aid of a GPS device, based on the psicogeography experiments by the situationists in the 50’s.
Essay by Debord...
ArtSBot project [Artistic Swarm Robots, with Henrique Garcia Pereira and IdMind], 2003
The first autonomous robots able to create their own art forms. They are equipped with environmental awareness and a small brain that runs algorithms based on simple rules. The resulting paintings are not predetermined, emerging rather from the combined effects of randomness and stigmergy, that is, indirect communication trough the environment.
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Voronoi Paintings, 2002
Paintings based on a diagram coined after the Russian mathematician Georgy Voronoy (1868-1908). Voronoi diagrams represent the partition of a given space into cells. Each cell interacts directly to its neighbours and indirectly to all the space. The resulting design is thus dynamic and simulates a self-organized structure.
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Lbot (LegoBot), 2001
first experiments with a very primitive autonomous painting robot with just one color sensor. When color is detected the robot draws a full circle.
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Swarm Paintings, 2001
Paintings made by an ‘ant algorithm’ plugged to a cad/cam machine.
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Swarm Sculpture, 2001
3d forms generated by an "ant algorithm".
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MC2 project [Machines of Collective Conscience], 2001
with Vitorino Ramos
Project designed for the Utopia Biennial 2001, Cascais.
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Swarm Paintings [digital], 2001
several experiments based on an "ant algorithm" developed by Vitorino Ramos.
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RGB Paintings, 2001
collages generated by a random process using the RGB channels.
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ARCHITECTURE



Tourism Park, 2005-...
project phase
A park in Algarve to serve as a tourist center and attraction.
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Aheta, 1999-2007
Head-office for the Association of Hotels and Tourist Development at Albufeira, Algarve.
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Contemporary Art Center, 2002-2006
An old rice factory renovated to house a contemporary art center in the town of Ponte de Sor in the south of Portugal.
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BOOKS / ART ESSAYS / FICTION



30 gramas, 2009 [PT]
Leonel Moura, LxXL, 23 x 15,5 cm, 80 b/w pages
A novel roving around the wish of a protagonist to literally open the most famous work of Piero Manzoni, the Artist’s Shit can.
ISBN: 978-972-8615-05-5
Order here

Poesia Robótica, 2009 [PT]
Leonel Moura, Ateliers do Bairro Alto / Museu da Água, Coimbra, 23 x 15,5 cm, 80 b/w pages
First book published with poems actually written by an autonomous robot.
ISBN: 978-972-998-35-28
Order here

RAP, 2009 [EN/PT]
Leonel Moura, Museu Municipal de Tavira, 23 x 15,5 cm, 104 color pages
Essay on RAP including the reproduction of 65 drawings made in New York and São Paulo.
ISBN: 978-972-8705-31-2
Order here
Robot Art, 2009 [EN/PT]
Leonel Moura, Obidos Patrimonium, 21 x 21 cm, 48 color pages
Essay by Carlos M. Fernandes on Art and Science and reproduction of several "insect robots".
Order here
Robotarium, 2007 [EN/PT]
Leonel Moura, Fenda Edition, 21 x 15 cm, 96 color pages
An essay on robots, robot art and the future.
ISBN: 978-989-603-033-9
Order here
Bioart - A new Kind of Art, 2005 [EN/PT]
Leonel Moura et al, Edition: Prates Gallery, 23,5 x 15 cm, 64 color pages
Book/catalogue from the exhibition 'Bioart' at Prates Gallery, 2005.
ISBN: 978-972-863-903-7
Order at Prates Gallery, Lisbon
Man + Robots: Symbiotic Art, 2004 [EN]
Leonel Moura and Henrique Garcia Pereira, Edition: Institut d'Art Contemporain, Lyon/Villeurbanne, France, 21 x 15 cm, 112 color pages
The book describes a new form of art emerging from the relation between man and autonomous robots that produce paintings through randomness and stigmergic positive feedback.
ISBN: 978-290-598-567-4
Order at Amazon.fr
Architopia, 2002 [EN]
Leonel Moura et al. Utopia Biennial, 21 x 15 cm, 144 color pages
Text: Swarm paintings, Non-human Art.
ISBN: 978-290-598-563-7
Order at IAC, Institut d'Art Contemporain, France
Formigas, Vagabundos e Anarquia [PT], 2003
Leonel Moura, Edition: AAAL, 23 x 15 cm, 96 b/w pages
An introduction to some alife ideas and its use on art and society.
ISBN: 978-972-959-004-7
Out-of-print
Anos 70 [PT], 1997
Leonel Moura, Edition: Fenda, Lisbon, 18,5 x 12 cm, 104 b/w pages
Photo series from the 70's.
ISBN: 978-972-918-454-3
Just a few left
Order here
Impossibilité [FR], 1995
Leonel Moura, Edition: Institut d'Art Contemporain, Lyon/Villeurbanne, France, 24 x 17 cm, 160 b/w pages
Several textes on art and culture printed by occasion of Leonel Moura’s retrospective at IAC.
ISBN:978-290-598-517-8
Order at Amazon.fr



BOOKS / OTHER ESSAYS AND FICTION



Incendio a Lisbona [IT], 2007
Leonel Moura, Edition: NonSoloParole, 20,5 x 14,5 cm, 80 b/w pages
Italian translation from "Fogo em Lisboa".
ISBN: 978-888-885-052-8
Order at Editor
Fogo em Lisboa [PT], 2003
Leonel Moura, Edition: Campo das Letras, 21 x 13,5 cm, 80 b/w pages
ISBN: 978-972-610-616-6
Order at Editor
Los hombres basura[ES], 1997
Leonel Moura, Edition Iralka, 21 x 14 cm, 96 b/w pages
Spanish translation from "Os homens lixo".
ISBN: 978-848-980-600-9
Order at Libro Verde
Les hommes poubelles [FR], 1995
Leonel Moura, Edition Grasset, Paris, 20 x 14 cm, 136 b/w pages
A book on homelessness and social exclusion.
ISBN: 978-224-659-071-2
Order at Amazon.fr
Anarquista com motorista [PT], 1998
Leonel Moura, Edition: Fenda, Lisbon, 21,5 x 11,5 cm, 88 b/w pages
Several textes on culture and the 'Melancolia' series.
ISBN:978-972-852-903-1
Out-of-print
Os homens lixo [PT], 1996
Leonel Moura, Edition: Fenda, Lisbon, 21,5 x 11,5 cm, 104 b/w pages
Photo series from the 70's.
ISBN: 978-972-918-434-8
Out of print


TEXTS [EN]
Textos em português

Note: a few texts may repeat some parts as they were produced for different contexts but regarding similar issues


Antennae, 2009
Interview.
The new species, 2007
Robots are a new kind of life born to share the planet with us.
Robot Zoo, 2007
My painting robots generate art works based on emergence. The essential of those creations is based on the machine own interpretation of the world and not on its human description.
The poor zoid, 2007
Natural and artificial evolution has something in common: the environment.
Robot Art, 2007
My painting robots generate art works based on emergence. The essential of those creations is based on the machine own interpretation of the world and not on its human description.
A new art paradigm, 2007
Out of the museums and art galleries many works are totally irrelevant and reduced to their real condition of garbage.
A reboot is required.
A brief history of robotics, 2007
Robotics must be seen as an amplification of life: a new kind of species born from a postnature context in order to stimulate, expand and enhance the available intelligence on the planet.
Robot Art: A New Kind of Art, 2007
To "take the human factor out of the loop" is a central topic if one intends to produce true machine creativity.
A New Kind of Art: The Robotic Action Painter, 2007
In the context of robotics RAP [Robotic Action Painter] demonstrates that machine creativity can be achieved by means of randomness, stigmergy and chromotaxis.
The End Of Art As We Know It, 2005
The Painting Robots were created to paint. Not my paintings but their own paintings. Such an objective may seem simple but in fact it adresses some of the most critical ideas on art, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Bioart, 2005
with Henrique Garcia Pereira
Bioart is a new kind of biological inspired art that campaigns for the emergence of a new artificial, dynamic and self-sustainable Nature.
A new kind of art: the painting robots, 2005
with Henrique Garcia Pereira
The painting robots are artificial ‘organisms’ able to create their own art forms. They are equipped with environmental awareness and a small brain that runs algorithms based on simple rules. The resulting paintings are not predetermined, emerging rather from the combined effects of randomness and stigmergy, that is, indirect communication trough the environment.
A True unmanned art [Paper for Consciousness Reframed, Beijing], 2004
with Henrique Garcia Pereira
A true unmanned art depends on the capacity to produce mechanical 'organisms' able to create their own art. This can be achieved by building devices with some kind of environmental awareness that run algorithms based on simple rules. The art produced is not predetermined in any manner, resulting rather from randomness and stigmergy, that is, indirect communication between multiple agents trough the environment. To witness the construction of a painting by autonomous robots represents for the human viewer an experience of global consciousness.
SYMBIOTIC ART recombining art, science and philosophy, 2004
with Henrique Garcia Pereira
This is the first experiment of collective robotics in the artistic realm.
Making artists [Published in Exit Express, Madrid], 2004
Making artists it’s much more fun than just making art.
Symbiotic Art Manifesto [Making the Artists that make the Art], 2004
with Henrique Garcia Pereira
1) Machines can make art; 2) Man and machines can make symbiotic art; 3) Symbiotic art is a new paradigm that opens an entire unexploited field in art; 4) Object manufacturing and the reign of the hand in art can be abandoned; 5) Personal expression and of the human/artist centrality can be abandoned; 6) Any moralistic or spiritual pretension and any representation purposes can be abandoned.
Trails, Ants and Anarchy, 2002
PDF document
Stigmergy, 2002
An interview with Social Fiction
Swarm Paintings - Non-human art, 2001
The main objective of an artificial art is to overcome the anthropocentric bias.
Instant Paintings, 2001
Choose randomly three pre-existing images of art works and mix them in the RGB channels. The result is an instant painting.
PDF document

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