Girls rule with the inventive ColorBot at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, photo: Christopher Musci.
The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party was the place to be for not only established artists and designers but for many much younger upcoming talents! The Saturday, May 21st family-friendly celebration, which coincided with Parsons’ graduation ceremonies, marked the final weekend of the two-week long first-ever annual Parsons Festival.
Brightening what could have been an otherwise rainy weekend day on NYC’s West 13th Street were booths featuring interactive arts and crafts for children. Our favorite was the ColorBots booth where children (and even some young-at-heart adults) were able to channel their inner Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline to create some fabulous sidewalk art with auto-piloted painting robots.
The ColorBot creators Katherine Moriwaki, Tom Bosket, Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Chris Hennelly from Parsons The News School for Design’s School of Art, Media and Technology were on hand to demonstrate how these simple bots made from vibrating plastic cups disperse color upon paper, plastic, and fabric substrates. The ColorBot is a modification of the original DrawBot design by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and can be seen piloted by delighted young artists in our photos and video from Saturday’s Parsons Festival Block Party and at www.coin-operated.com
The inventive ColorBot generating impromptu patterns at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, photo: Christopher Musci.
Future Parsons recruit painting with the ColorBot at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, video still: Geoffry Gertz.
Building giant bots with the ColorBot at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, photo: Christopher Musci.
Unleashing your inner Jackson Pollock with the ColorBot at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, photo: Christopher Musci.
Art generated by the ColorBot at The Parsons Festival 2011 Block Party, photo: Christopher Musci.
What a fun event!