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2020 Grant Awards

Robotics Art Residency

  • General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Laboratory and Fine Arts and Design
  • GRASP at PERCH, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Penn Engineering), Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
  • Collaborative Provosts Interdisciplinary Grant
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An photograph from the exhibition Fruits of Matadero by Orkan Telhan.

Fruits of Matadero (2019) by Orkan Telhan, pictured here, uses a mechanactronic parrot and a kinetic incubator to explore ways of growing microbial fruits in urban environments that are affected by the climate crisis, thus demonstrating the use of robotic technologies for addressing environmental concerns. The video below is an example of robotics research in the GRASP Lab: a “Programmably Compliant Origami Mechanism for Dynamically Dexterous Robots" (April, 2020 RAL) by PhD Student Wei-Hsi Chen, MS Student Shivangi Misra, Yuchong Gao, Young-Joo Lee, Daniel E. Koditschek, Shu Yang and Cynthia R. Sung.

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Weitzman School of Design will collaborate on a residency program that will bring together faculty and students to explore the use of robotic technologies in addressing contemporary social, cultural, and environmental challenges. The schools will invite three artists, designers, engineers or creatives from any discipline to spend four weeks at Penn, during which each will develop a creative project with resources offered by the Penn Engineering Research and Collaboration Hub (PERCH) and the Department of Fine Arts and Design. The residents will receive mentorship from Penn faculty, use the fabrication facilities at PERCH, and interact with students across the campus through lectures and workshops. The outcome of each residency will culminate in a group exhibition at Esther Klein Gallery and a digital form of dissemination (i.e., publication, website), which will allow them to share the results within the broader community. Robotics Art Residency was co-conceptualized and is co-managed by Diedra Krieger and Orkan Telhan.

An example of robotics research in the GRASP Lab:




  • 2020
  • Collaborative Provosts Interdisciplinary
  • GRASP at PERCH
  • Presenting Art Grant
  • Project Support
  • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Penn Engineering)
  • Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)

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The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation

John McInerney (he/him)
Executive Director
215-573-0874
mcinernj@upenn.edu

Chloe Reison (she/her)
Associate Director
215-573-2159
reison@upenn.edu

Tamara Suber (she/her)
Executive Coordinator of Grants and Community and Equity Strategies
215-898-0608
suber@upenn.edu

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is located on the Upper Mezzanine of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

3680 Walnut Street
Philadelphia PA

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