Chico MacMurtrie is internationally recognized as a pioneer of art and robotics. He founded the interdisciplinary collective Amorphic Robot Works, dedicated to the research and development of his experimental, anthropomorphic, computer-controlled sculptures which evolved over the years into a “Society of Machines.” MacMurtrie was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016 with his Border Crossers project, a public performance series on both sides of the US-Mexico border involving a series of inflatable, border-crossing robotic sculptures. 

MacMurtrie continues his investigation of soft robotics into his current Black Box residency project, Dual Pneuma, a four-limbed robot with an inflatable musculature and semi-autonomous capacities of movement. The project is being developed with support from the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology, Creative Capital, the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. 

Photo by Andrew Boyle for NeueHouse, 2019.