A selection of studies for Portraits of Robots by Thomas Zummer. These drawings are part of the final series of 50 portraits and 50 studies for portraits of real, functional robots, drawn with graphite and carbon on paper, and based on archival photographs, diagrams, and photographs taken by the artist.

For several years Zummer has been obsessed with robots. He sees robots as not only technological, but cultural artifacts, and has discovered that their early history and development as devices, figures, and images is quite strange. Why, for example, should a robot have eyebrows, teeth, or nipples, walk a dog, or push a baby carriage? Why did so many early robots smoke cigars or cigarettes, blow smoke rings, or yodel? These are just a few of the odd facts unearthed by Zummer in his researches. His ?portraits of robots? started as an ironic, rather tongue-in-cheek project investigating the image of the robot as a close?but not too close? approximation of the human. Most of the early robots had bilateral symmetry, two eyes, hands, limbs, and other familiar human-like attributes. But why design a robot to look roughly like a person in order to push a vacuum cleaner? Why not just design a smart vacuum-cleaner?

Zummer has recently shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Antwerp, the Cleveland Institute for Art, De Balie Cultural Center/Amsterdam, ZKM/Karlsruhe, Netwerkgalerij/Aalst, and the Mutter Museum/Philadelphia. He is senior lecturer in critical studies at Tyler School of Art/Temple University and regular visiting professor in the Transmedia Programme/Post-Graduate at Hogeschool Sint-Lukas, Brussels.