Creative Collaboration

HIWIN is a long-time participant in creative and inspirational cross-sector joint creation projects that bring out the soft power of Taiwan. We have several cross-sector joint creation projects ongoing in 2021. However, large-scale events have been put on hold due to the pandemic.

1.The Unexpected Artistic Transformation of Robotic Arms

HIWIN's robots continue to achieve remarkable results in collaboration with the arts sector.

Game of Life is an exhibit curated by C-LAB, a technology media experiment platform, and artist Cheng Hsien-Yu. Inspired by Conway's Game of Life, the C-LAB exhibit features a robot with AI that rethinks evolution and life to exemplify the limitless possibilities in the collaboration between mechanical control and technology arts. The robotic arm repeatedly draws patterns emblematic of the evolution in the Game of Life. It then erases the cell patterns that have completed the evolution cycle. The audience sees a precision robotic arm in action, executing the relentless game of life, drawing patterns that signify birth and erasing those that have died. It is a show of the digital evolution of life without much sentiment.

《Game of Life》

HIWIN once again collaborated with Cheng Hsien-Yu, along with Hsu Chia-Wei and Chang Ting-Tong on Crystal Seeding, a highly anticipated exhibit in the Future Media Arts Festival 2021 curated by C-LAB. In echoing the concept that the future is based on the past, artists visited the Huwei Sugar Factory in Yunlin and used cane sugar as the base material for a theatre installation featuring traditional glove puppetry, experimental music, 3D printing technology, and a robotic arm. At the exhibition, an adapted version of the Kominka puppet show is played, starring the robotic arm in a reality show where visitors can walk in and watch closely. The devices interpret and play the different "roles" and "incidents" to discuss the development of the sugar industry and its social complexity as the first industry in Taiwan to embrace modern industrialization. The exhibit reexamines the development of the sugar industry in the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan from a contemporary perspective.

《Crystal Seeding》

Installation artist Sun Yuan is an expert in challenging prejudices and creating sensational shocks for the audience. He created The Grudge-Bearer Never Rests for C-LAB's exhibition, Digital Corporeality. It is a small device consisting of Lego Minifigures, red balls, and robotic arms. The art installation signifies the transformation of spectators previously embedded in the ecosystem (the circle formed by Minifigures) into a third party. It encourages the audience to look at it outside the box from a bird's eye view. Three robotic arms hold a white round plate on which Minifigures are placed, and the red balls sway along with the movements of the robotic arms, crashing into Lego Minifigures irregularly. The minifigures are sometimes stable and sometimes toppled, which is a reflection of reality with stability and destruction in life. Under the control of an authoritarian regime, people are always going back and forth between resisting interference and compromising.

《The Grudge-Bearer Never Rests》

Robotic arms become the authority in The Grudge-Bearer Never Rests

Control Center, created by artists Tao Ya-Lun, Wu Po-Yao, and Lin Hong, is an exhibit featuring two identical spaces in different cities. Connected through videoconferencing, the CCTVs of each space transmit the real-time monitoring images reciprocally as if they are spying on each other. By putting on a VR helmet, the audience can "touch" and "feel" as they see their virtual hands explore the space on the other side via the robotic arms and imaging devices there and immerse in a complex experience in a space where virtuality is mixed with reality. The installation was invited to be on exhibit at Huashan 1914 Creative Park and MoCA Taipei (simultaneous exhibition at Athens Digital Arts Festival). In 2021, it was displayed at HIWIN's booth at the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show (TAIROS) and attracted many visitors to try the experience.

Control Center on exhibit at Huashan 1914 Creative Park

Control Center on exhibit at MoCA Taipei

Control Center open for experience at HIWIN's booth at TAIROS in 2021

2.HIWIN Robot Bear art installation

HIWIN collaborated with Taichung City Government on the HIWIN Robot Bear art installation. All critical components used are products of HIWIN Technologies and HIWIN MIKROSYSTEM. The articulated robotic arms are equipped with ballscrews, linear guideways, precision linear modules, and servomotors to enable dance moves. Father Bear swings and sways its hands while the Son Bear spins around dancing. The art installation now sits next to the service center at Taichung City Precision Mechanical Innovation Technology Park to signify the innovative results of the park.

HIWIN Robot Bear

HIWIN Robot Bear is lit up at night and delivers a completely different ambiance