This is a Sentry, one tough robot. Stronger than the average Slobot, and a good choice to protect and serve. But not in a mindless way, like some kind of... well... robot. More like a robot with an attitude (albeit, a good one).

This is a sloQee 7b. OK, he's got four arms. Wouldn't you like to have four arms? Just think of the fun you could have. But alas, he has no eyes. Maybe not such a bad thing, though, ya know?

Another helpful robot, designed to assist humans with limited mobility. He's got one huge eye right in the middle of his head, and yet....

An underwater, shark-hunting robot. No need for a harpoon, he lulls the sharks into submission. Such talent!

Ok this guy is a jokester. Do not be swayed by his innocence. He's a slayer, truly he is. His jokes will kill ya. Puns, knock- knock jokes, you name it.

If you want to get the game this weekend, you need this girl. She can make sure the picture is perfect. After all, it is a big game weekend, isn't it? (Gobble gobble.)

A robot pharmacist, 'nuff said...

Sometimes you just gotta give in to popular culture, don'tcha? And what better way than with a Simpsons slobot - d'oh!

Ok, he might be a teddy bear robot. So what? Nothing wrong with more teddy bears in the world, even if they are made of metal.

Ok, no arms. Tru dat. But he's still useful. How, you ask? He's a tree herder on Mars. Oh yes he is.

The Three Philosophers - I don't know about you, but when I see these three guys, I just know I am in the presence of wisdom. Don't they look smart and all-knowing? It's kinda freaky, really. Okay, gotta look away now.....

Ahhh, yes. A more civilized robot. He makes tea. And not just any kind of tea, but the proper British kind. How many lumps do you take?

Guardian Robot - the strong but silent type.

Stubby little arms, but take a look at those legs. Must be a soccer player.

Cute green child-like slobot - for the kiddies (or the child in you, huh?). Not only that, he glows in the dark.

Some of these slobots are currently part of the Toying with Art exhibit at the Cameron Art Museum (thru March 2010). Go check it out.

And for more info on Slobots, see Mike's website.

According to Kappel, he's only making 30 of each 8x10 fine art print, and they'll be hand-numbered and professionally printed on museum-quality 505 Somerset Velvet stock. They go for $45 each, including shipping. So far, it's just these five prints, which include my favorites, "Your Wrecks Make Mechs" and the weird lava robot image.

Also, Kappel says he's showing his art at Crema Bakery and Cafe in Portland, through December, and some kid-friendly paintings will be at Black Wagon in North Portland at the same time.

Order your own prints here. [Space Monkey Designs]

We became fascinated with Kappel's robot masterpieces when we saw he was having a gallery show in Phoenix recently, called "Artificial Agents." We caught up with Kappel, who kindly sent us some of his amazing robot paintings, plus some other horror-themed art (perfect for late October!). Kappel tells us:

I became interested in all that is scifi long ago. My father schooled both my sister in myself in the finer things in life. 50's horror flicks, Star Trek, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Hitchhiker's Guide, OG Twilight Zone, Battlestar Galactica, (Even the Greatest American Hero) and The Outer Limits coupled with a heavy dose of Tom and Jerry, Superfriends, Thundar, M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, Transformers and Bugs Bunny. Everything that I do spawns from that foundation, sprinkle in some comic book affinity, with the writings of Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, and shazaam, you have Space Monkey Designs and all of my hand crafted, wood sculpted, laser cut visual stylings.

See more of Kappel's work at his site. [Space Monkey Designs]

Life Magazine has even more box art from 1950s science fiction toys, with plenty of ray guns, spacemen, and rocket ships. The boxes, largely designed in Japan and Korea, take varied views of our spacefaring future, sometimes focusing on the idyllic wonder of space travel (and how our robot companions will help) and other times on the crime and war that could come with an interplanetary frontier. But whether they were meant for peace or war, the robots got to look wonderful and weird.

[Life Magazine via Tokyomango]

We've profiled some of Wragg's sexier (read: NSFW) work before, and BrainBot has the all their whimsy, but is tinged with sadness as well. The BrainBot series was created as part of the "Mind Machines" show at San Diego's Distinctions Gallery. The illustrations are great on their own, but could we maybe someday see a Pixar-produced BrainBot short?

[Nate Wragg via lines and colors]

A Kiss Before Work
A Breath of Fresh Air
Computer Companion
The Brainbot is Alive and Dangerous
Brainbot Has Bad Days Too

The picture above shows an 11-minute exposure of a Roomba cleaning a room with an LED on its back. The LED was fading from blue to red, thus producing the cool purpley silly string effect, which wouldn't be out of place in a 1980s Prince video. Here's another one from the same artist, Reconscious:

They're both part of the Roomba Art Pool on Flickr, which includes a ton of other amazing light-up patterns. Check it out!

There is something melancholy and sardonic about these photographs from Thomas Jackson, a photographer from New York who has created a robot out of junk parts and posed it in a variety of terrifying situations.

Jackson writes to io9:

The robot is made from industrial scraps, spare computer parts, surveillance camera housings (his feet) and a recessed lighting fixture (that's his head). But aside from his mechanical construction, he's just like we humans: When not engaged in thankless labor, he's pretty much scared shitless. The pics themselves are shot in upstate New York on film with a 4X5 camera.

These images are so haunting to me because they represent exactly what robot manufacturers fantasize the future of robots will be: scut work and warfare. These gorgeous, sad images depict the life of our future synthetic companions, designed to be as human as possible so that we can degrade them with the work we would never want to do ourselves.

Jackson adds:

They started out as self-portraits. I hated my last job, and the first few images, the laundry and the one where he's running, were a reflection of how I felt there. The old boss never actually shot me with lasers, but he might as well have... Since those days, however, the robot has taken on a life of his own. He still engages in pointless drudgery, and he keeps encountering these terrifying apparitions in the woods, but for all I know, he could be creating them himself for some mysterious purpose.

As for my visual inspirations, I've always loved the low-tech, analog special effects of pre-CGI movies and TV shows; Star Trek, Logan's Run, stuff like that. I've also gotten a lot of ideas just looking at book covers in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.

Check out more of Jackson's work in his online gallery.

Every year, the RoboGames come to San Francisco in a fiery burst of warring robots who duel to the death in a series of cage matches. But RoboGames is about more than killing. It's also about robotic and kinetic art, as well as robots who can pass tests of skill by playing games or even dancing.

And this year RoboGames is celebrating the artistic side of robots by having an art exposition devoted to robotic and kinetic art. The curators of the expo come from the amazing team who brought you the SWARM robots (pictured above). Marnia Johnson from SWARM passes along this call for art:

ROBOGAMES 2009 5th Art Exhibition

Call for Entries:

The exhibition will take place during the ROBOGAMES event from June 12th –14th at Fort Mason in San Francisco, CA. Opening night is Friday June 12th

The ROBOGAMES Art Exhibition will show case the artistic qualities that are possible in robotic and kinetic art. Some examples of what we are looking for are: static sculpture, kinetic sculpture, bar-tending robots, musical robots, robots that paint, works of industrial art and any works that incorporate or look like they incorporate mechanical or technological attributes.

Radio controlled works and pyro-kinetic works are also encouraged to apply. Pyro-kinetic works will be for display only but may perform opening night. Please include power requirements, wireless, or RC frequency, performance space and a tentative performance schedule (for kinetic works. For example: 10'x10' space with one hour performances twice a day).

The artist will be responsible for the transportation of their artwork to and from the exhibition. Artists will also be responsible for any and all supplies and travel expenses. ROBOGAMES can provide help with transportation costs depending on need. The ROBOGAMES Art Exhibition open call will run until May 8th 2009.

Best of Luck!

Find out more about RoboGames here, and register to participate in the Art Expo here (register with the group "art bots").

Kuszyk's exhibition, "Jammer Slammer: The Evalation," represents the culmination of decade's work on colorful and crazy, yet somewhat downer, robot images. It opened this past weekend at the McCaig-Welles Gallery in Brooklyn and will hopefully be there for a while.

[McCaig-Welles via Gothamist]

We interviewed Gibson about World War Robot a while back, and he described the IDW graphic novel thusly:

A dwindling band of humans and robots battle it out in what`ll probably end humanity as we know it - on Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Badass battles, really intense human/robot drama, plus it gets kinda political. And we`re attempting a little experiment with a different kind of humor. This war is the tail end of the worst things imaginable - epic catastrophes. So the comic is also dosed with a bit of "desperation comedy". Like laughing while you`re crying.

The bleakness and weird humor definitely come through in the tie-in figures. The Bramble toy costs a cool $250, but it'll probably incinerate anyone who criticizes your messy-ass desk.

Images from Toybot Studios. [Bambaland] Thanks Metaphorge!

Bradbury tells BoingBoing that his new children's trilogy Dot.Robot features an ubergeek named Jackson teaming up with an American hardware genius named Brooke, to fight "some seriously malevolent (cool) dot robots." And here's one of those robots, the spiky-looking Punk, live and in person, courtesy of robot maker Mike Strick:

The monster pictures are pretty awesome also. Check them out at the first link.

[Philly Art Galleries and Robot Sweatshop, thanks to Robert Morgan]

[BBC]

Mayer has been making sculptural robots out of typewriters for more than a decade now:

I started working with typewriters in 1994 while living in a small town in Iowa. They’ve always been intensely interesting to me (when I was about ten years old I wanted to take apart my mother’s 1920’s Underwood), so it was natural that, having a typewriter and some free time, I would want to dissect one. I think of the typewriter as a product of nature- it was designed by minds immersed in nature around them, and mimicked the curves, geometry, and physical processes abounding in nature. Though it is cold metal created by human hands, the typewriter is just as much a natural material as stone or wood. I concentrate on bringing this fascination with the raw material and interest in science and science fiction together in the subtleties of the human form.

Perhaps most impressive - outside of the beauty of the sculptures themselves - is the way that the pieces are constructed:

I do not solder, weld, or glue these assemblages together- the process is entirely cold assembly.

[Jeffrey Mayer]

Bikini FemBot is one of a series of robots designed by Etsy's Spaceboyjordo, each of which promises to

[aid] in safety & protection [and help] prevent ninjas, cowboys, aliens, pirates, dogs w/ sweaters, creepy uncles, and emo kids from entering your zone by using its robot skillz. For best results place robot on shelf facing a window and/or door of your zone. See results instantly. In case of detached limb during combat, acquire a hot glue servicing mechanism device and reattach where necessary. Sometimes robot may become fierce. Batteries not included, nor necessary. Robot personalities may vary. See a physician if complications occur.

Each of the robots are hand-made and one-of-a-kind; my favorite may be Yoshi, the Mega Robot. There's just something about his bright-green awesomeness that gets to me every time I look at him.

Holla at dem Bots yo! [Etsy]

Images by Andre Kutscherauer. [Artist's site, via BotJunkie]

The image "Robo Atlas" is a sketch for a painting which will appear in the Grunberg romantic comedy, which Grunberg co-wrote with fellow Heroes star David Anders (Kensei/Adam).
Here's Joyner's artist statement:

I was born in the year 1960, in San Mateo, a suburb of San Francisco, CA. My childhood was fairly uneventful, doing the usual things most kids did, reading comics (mostly Mad, Creepy, Eerie & newspaper comic strips), playing sports, making gunpowder, and going to school, as well as drawing and painting. My father was atheist & my mother a Methodist...While my mother would bribe me with donuts to go to Sunday school, my father would take me aside & tell me 'Jesus is a crock of S_ _ _". Oddly enough they stayed together for over 50 years. I remember going to a huge Van Gogh exhibit as a child at the De Young in SF (and being very impressed) & taking painting lessons with my older sister at the local recreation center. Sometime in the first grade, classmates & teachers started to take notice of my work and eventually some of my paintings from the forth grade class, along with some other students work, were chosen for an extended statewide tour.

In high school, I spent most of my energy dating, drawing, painting & working in a lumber mill to save up for school. After winning a few awards, I knew I'd be attending art school. So I left home (in Oregon) & attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco for four years. While there, I made a few friends & won some awards. Later, with influential teachers like Francis Livingston, Kazuhiko Sano, Bill Sanchez & Robert Hunt, my illustration skills improved & soon was getting a few advertising jobs during his last semester at the Academy (mostly pen & ink & school book assignments).

After Art school, I joined the San Francisco Society of Illustrators & participated in their annual shows, charities & Air force art programs. The clients were educational publishers, high tech companies, card companies, magazine publishers & advertising agencies. In 1989 I won two gold medals in the S.F.S.I. annual show.

During the recession of the early 1990s things were not going so good, not that they ever were really that great, in regards to my illustration career, So I took a computer animation assignment, not knowing mouse from a hole in wall...learning 5 programs at the same time & trying to meet deadlines may sound fun, but I don't recommend trying it. Anyway, after 3 months of torture, though the work was successful (Mavis teaches typing for kids) I chose not to pursue animation. The training was good though, & I still use some of the things I learned. A few years later, I took a job texture mapping for a CG movie & got to relive the learning/producing nightmare. The next job, doing backgrounds for Internet cartoons at Spunky Productions, for some reason, was not such a headache. I was prepared to do it the rest of my life, but like so many other companies of the dot-com phenomenon, the company folded.

In 1999 I started to enter various juried shows at Artisans Gallery in Mill Valley, CA. & the work was well received. Shows in other galleries, (usually group shows) were positive as well. In 2000, after years of visualizing other peoples ideas, I made the decision to only paint things that I liked. Four series of paintings of different subjects were started; they were: San Francisco urbanscapes, paintings of old newspaper cartoons characters, Mexican masks, and last but not least, Japanese tin (toy) robots. Though all four series of these subjects were enjoyable to do, I chose to focus on the tin robots, as they were the most popular & seemed to have the most possibilities.

So, armed with a small collection of tin robots & spaceships I began painting them in earnest. In attempt to bring them to life without losing their charm, I showed them where they belonged: outer space. By 2002 the paintings were looking good, but they still needed something to play off of... perhaps a nemesis. After a month or so of searching for a 'nemesis' I had an epiphany while watching the movie 'Pleasantville.' In one of the scenes, Jeff Daniels paints a still life of...donuts. With thoughts of Wayne Thiebaud's pastries always close at hand, it wasn't difficult to see the battle scene of robots retreating from 300-foot tall donuts when I went to bed that night. The rest, as they say, is history.