Oscar G Torres, the grad student who presented this Helios gadget-charging power tree last year at NYU's ITP show was back at the Spring ITP show this year with Jackoon, a robot that paints. Jackoon is named after Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning— both real artists whom the robot's work resembles.

But unlike the BrushBots at last year's show, the Jackoon doesn't apply its paint randomly. There's a camera on the ceiling that knows where the 'bot is on the canvas and directs it based on an image that the robot is supposed to imitate, and on the color paint that the robot has in its arsenal.

We'll admit, the paintings that the robot has completed so far (see below) are not exactly Pollock-level masterpieces. But give the little guy a chance— he's brand new, but in a few years, we might have trouble distinguishing his work from those of the masters.

Blu Bee