Artificial corporeality in media art: tracing the genealogy of soft robotic aesthetics

In recent decades, there has been a shift in robotics, leaning towards soft materials, which has resulted in a new class of soft robotics. Inspired by biological structures, soft robots are machines primarily composed of synthetic materials with elastic moduli comparable to those of soft organic materials. Their lifelike, bio-inspired qualities enable them to facilitate novel types of human-robot interactions. Soft robots have gained prominence in media art installations and performances, forging a distinctive, yet underexplored field within media art. This article aims to generate knowledge in soft robotics from the perspective of media art history, a dynamic and interdisciplinary field that traces soft robot aesthetics through various (media) art historical trajectories: soft feminist sculpture, inflatables and cybernetic sculpture. The study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of soft robots’ corporeal design in human-robot interaction, constructing artificial corporeality – a conceptual framework for analyzing bio-inspired machines, particularly robots. The paper investigates the origins of soft robotic media art and performance, while also placing the field within the framework of posthuman theory (e.g. the work of Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad and N. Katherine Hayles) and new materialism through the symbolic figuration of a boundary object (Susan Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer). Consequently, it enhances our comprehension of the field’s implications for soft robotics engineering, media art, human-robot interaction and the expanding ripples in culture and society.