Paula Gaetano-Adi, assistant professor of new media art, will combine the modern — robotic art — with old ancestral techniques for an art installation that will be funded by a prestigious grant from the VIDA Art and Artificial Life Awards.

Inspired by the creation mythology of the Popol Vuh, Gaetano-Adi will create the work called TZ'IJK, the Mayan word for mud, using a pre-colonial South American construction technique called "Quincha." The work consists of seven giant spherical autonomous robotic agents with an external shell of dried mud.

"Robots raise intriguing cultural questions about our 'humanness' that seem to engage not only philosophers, scientists and technologists, but also artists." Gaetano-Adi says.