Cat Royale: A Case Study of Artist-led AI Research

Dingbang Cao, Nick Tandavanitj, Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr, Eike Schneiders, Guido Salimbeni, Mike Pound, Clara Mancini, Steve Benford
Proceedings of the UK AI Conference 2024, PMLR 295:16-25, 2025.

Abstract

We explore artist-led research as a method to complement technical AI methodologies. We present a case study called Cat Royale in which artists created a robot to play with cats. We show how the artist-led development of this system involved extensive improvisation to create a socio-technical AI system that ultimately delivered a corpus of video data of cats interacting with robots. We introduce a machine learning tool that enables diverse stakeholders to explore this corpus. We reflect on the distinctive characteristics of artist-led AI research, the potential benefits to AI, and the tensions involved.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v295-cao25a, title = {Cat Royale: A Case Study of Artist-led AI Research}, author = {Cao, Dingbang and Tandavanitj, Nick and Adams, Matt and Farr, Ju Row and Schneiders, Eike and Salimbeni, Guido and Pound, Mike and Mancini, Clara and Benford, Steve}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the UK AI Conference 2024}, pages = {16--25}, year = {2025}, editor = {Benford, Alistair and Cabrera, Christian and Kiden, Sarah and Salili-James, Arianna and Zakka, Vincent Gbouna}, volume = {295}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {05 Aug}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v295/main/assets/cao25a/cao25a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v295/cao25a.html}, abstract = {We explore artist-led research as a method to complement technical AI methodologies. We present a case study called Cat Royale in which artists created a robot to play with cats. We show how the artist-led development of this system involved extensive improvisation to create a socio-technical AI system that ultimately delivered a corpus of video data of cats interacting with robots. We introduce a machine learning tool that enables diverse stakeholders to explore this corpus. We reflect on the distinctive characteristics of artist-led AI research, the potential benefits to AI, and the tensions involved. } }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Cat Royale: A Case Study of Artist-led AI Research %A Dingbang Cao %A Nick Tandavanitj %A Matt Adams %A Ju Row Farr %A Eike Schneiders %A Guido Salimbeni %A Mike Pound %A Clara Mancini %A Steve Benford %B Proceedings of the UK AI Conference 2024 %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2025 %E Alistair Benford %E Christian Cabrera %E Sarah Kiden %E Arianna Salili-James %E Vincent Gbouna Zakka %F pmlr-v295-cao25a %I PMLR %P 16--25 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v295/cao25a.html %V 295 %X We explore artist-led research as a method to complement technical AI methodologies. We present a case study called Cat Royale in which artists created a robot to play with cats. We show how the artist-led development of this system involved extensive improvisation to create a socio-technical AI system that ultimately delivered a corpus of video data of cats interacting with robots. We introduce a machine learning tool that enables diverse stakeholders to explore this corpus. We reflect on the distinctive characteristics of artist-led AI research, the potential benefits to AI, and the tensions involved.
APA
Cao, D., Tandavanitj, N., Adams, M., Farr, J.R., Schneiders, E., Salimbeni, G., Pound, M., Mancini, C. & Benford, S.. (2025). Cat Royale: A Case Study of Artist-led AI Research. Proceedings of the UK AI Conference 2024, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 295:16-25 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v295/cao25a.html.

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