Did you meet our special visitors this year?
This year, robots were a big theme at Maker Faire Delft. Not only as machines to look at, but as special visitors that became part of the festival itself. Just like the people walking around, these robotic creatures explored, interacted, surprised and sometimes even asked something from the audience.
From a flashing beetle to a kinetic tarantula and from a soft robotic fish to a creature that carries nature back into the city: each robot had its own character, movement and story. Below, we highlight a few remarkable robotic creatures and the makers behind them.
Want to read more? At the bottom of this page you can find links to the makers and their work.
Flash Beetle | Jordan boyle and Hrvoje Hirsl
The Flash Beetle is a speculative robot creature inspired by a beetle exploring its environment. When it feels scared by things approaching it, it protects itself by flashing a bright light.
The work was imagined by researcher Jordan Boyle and artist Hrvoje Hirsl, and developed together with Tiina Otala, who worked on the mechanics, and Sam Leveau, who worked on the software. Hirsl’s practice moves between art, science and philosophy. Instead of simply explaining technology, his work invites visitors to experience it, and to question how our tools shape the way we understand nature, ourselves and what is real.
More: https://hrvojehirsl.com/
Vis — Animaltroniek | Tristan Kruithof
Vis is part of Animaltroniek, a kinetic artwork by Tristan Kruithof. The project is a playful search for softness, emotion and “aaibaarheid” within robotics. By combining electronics, mechanics, radio control and visible robot techniques, the work becomes a creature with its own identity.
Although the technology remains visible, many visitors respond to the work with emotion. Animaltroniek explores how the human brain recognises movement and form, and how quickly we can start to perceive a machine as something alive.
More: https://www.exoot.info/
Sola Tarantula | Jelle Korevaar
Sola Tarantula by Jelle Korevaar is a kinetic installation that stimulates social interaction. The work invites visitors to experience it as a playful attraction, but sometimes it stops unexpectedly. At that moment, the person interacting with the work has to take action, or ask someone else for help.
In this way, Sola Tarantula reflects life itself: things do not always move the way we expect or want them to. The work encourages people to care for each other and shows that positive change is possible when we act together.
More: https://www.jellekorevaar.com/sola-tarantula-jelle-korevaar
Bendbeast | Jasper Letschert
Bendbeast by Jasper Letschert is a communal creature designed to bring small pieces of nature back into urban environments. Visitors can fill pods with natural materials such as earth, woodchips, seeds, seed bombs or leaves, and load them into the creature. Bendbeast then helps distribute these elements across overlooked patches of the city.
The work responds to a feeling of solastalgia: the sadness or disconnection that can arise when our relationship with land, soil, nature and place changes. Letschert’s work often moves between nature, technology and consumer culture, asking what kind of role these objects play in our increasingly “crossnatural” world.
SandPods
SandPods transformed the streets of Delft into a living canvas. These self-balancing robots moved through the city while printing colourful sand patterns, turning sidewalks into temporary artworks shaped by motion, chance and human interaction.
Sometimes visitors could guide them, and sometimes the SandPods seemed to lead the way themselves. In doing so, they became part robot, part performer and part moving artwork within the festival.