Patrick Tresset

Biography

Patrick Tresset is a French artist and researcher best known for his robotic mark-making installations and live performances. Over the past two decades, his practice has explored the representation of human presence and experience through computational systems, AI, robotics, and both new and traditional media. Originally a painter with a childhood interest in electronics and computing sciences, Tresset developed autonomous drawing and painting systems as a response to painter's block, functioning as creative prosthetics that could observe and depict human subjects on his behalf. He studied at Goldsmiths College in London beginning in 2004, earning a master's degree and an MPhil in Arts and Technology, and later held positions as senior research fellow at the University of Konstanz and visiting adjunct professor at the University of Canberra. His research on computational creativity and artificial intelligence has been cited in over 300 academic publications. Tresset's Human Studies series of robotic drawing installations has been exhibited at major institutions including the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, MMCA Seoul, Mori Art Museum Tokyo, and the Prada Foundation, and has received honors from Lumen, Ars Electronica, and the Japan Media Arts Festival. He was named a 2017 World Economic Forum Cultural Leader. At the exhibition Perception Loops, presented via 100 Collectors, Tresset's work examined seeing, being seen, and machine interpretation, continuing his long-running investigation into how humans depict other humans and how they relate to robots and machines that watch and draw them in return.