Tresset is a contemporary French artist based in Brussels, exhibited worldwide. Best known for his performative installations, he explores the representation of human presence and experience using computational systems, AI, robotics, and traditional media.
Patrick Tresset’s computational systems create theatrical installations where robots take on roles or behaviors that evoke human characteristics. His work is known for imbuing robotic systems with a sense of personality and intentionality that mimics human artistic creation and interaction. His robots create drawings and paintings based on algorithms he programs into them, allowing for the blending of human and free flowing robotics to weave together.
"I use robots as very stylized actors to represent certain human traits. My work is not at all about technology. I mean, people can see a commentary on technology, but it's not at all about that. It's about a representation of humanity."
Human Study #4, La Classe
Human Study #4 La Classe was a commissioned robotic art installation in a theatrical setting, inviting visitors to observe a classroom of 20 robot pupils being taught lessons by their robot teacher.
In this work, Tresset’s robots consist of a camera and a robot arm holding a pen, controlled by a laptop hidden in each robot’s “body” – a traditional school desk. On the wall hangs a series of computational plotted drawings based on a math course book. The robots, acting as pupils and a teacher, engage in a simulation of a 1970s French primary school, a concept drawn from Tresset’s own childhood and elements of popular culture and philosophy, including influences from innovative cultural theorists Jacques Tati, Theodor Adorno and Michel Foucault. The robots express themselves in distorted morse code. Trained to represent human tendencies towards conformity and obsessiveness, they learn to pass and record time with tally marks to alleviate boredom. While the robot students’ actions are synchronised, each is unique in its movements. Each robot displays human traits affecting their behaviour such as shyness, nerdiness, boredom and some are distracted by the activity of their colleagues or the public in the room. Some of the robots appear to take to their task with vigour while others work slower and seem apprehensive. The performance is an observation of society, human nature and behavioural standardisation, and how we humanise robots.
La Classe was commissioned and produced by Illuminate Productions for MERGE festival, London, in partnership with Better Bankside and Tate Modern in 2017.
In another room visitors viewed a sitter sketched by robots in a scene reminiscent of a life drawing class. The three robots (Human Study #1, 3RNP) sketched the portrait obsessively – the human participant at the mercy of the robot’s scrutiny.
___________________________________
Whilst We Were Here We Made Some Drawings
The robots present in the space act as if they are drawers in their own right, producing images that are not pre-programmed, but an autonomous interpretation influenced by the robot’s qualities and faults.
On a large rectangular table a duo of ambidextrous mobile robots (RNP-A*) scribble continuously on a large sheet of paper and occasionally observe with curiosity the visitors. What they depict is the environment from their own perspectives and visual memories of events, especially the audience’s physical presence. The work was exhibited at Watermans Art Center, London, 2017-2018. Read more.
"The robots I develop are influenced by research into human behaviour, more specifically how human beings depict other humans, how humans perceive artworks and how humans relate to robots. The artifacts produced by these computational systems can also be considered as studies of the human.
The original aim driving my work was to create autonomous systems capable of producing images, which have a similar emotional and aesthetic impact on a spectator as human made artworks. It is important here to stress that the aim is not to invent systems that are capable of drawing precisely like a human, but for the drawing to have a certain aesthetic effect on the observer.
I constantly work on the computational system controlling the robot’s drawing behaviour, and for each exhibition the systems are tuned again until they produce what I consider to be interesting drawings. Using autonomous robots to draw from observation enables me to explore further the drawing practice."
____________________________________
Thalys 9440 Vers Paris
Memories from a train journey on the Thalys high speed train company's train number 9440, headed to Paris.
"Peering out from a train window offers a deceptively mundane yet profound experience. To me, it is reminiscent of daydreaming, where, as the landscape shifts, my mind conjures stories—evocative of mesmerizing films. This sentiment and my artistic journey have coalesced into the computational system I've developed since 2009."
In March 2021 Tresset overlaid a new graphical interface onto the system that was pivotal—it transformed a once autonomous system, allowing for refined control. "Now, I can produce digital artworks, both stills and animations, harnessing the power of generative algorithms, feedback loops, computer vision, and machine learning models. Interestingly, my interaction with this system mirrors the intimacy and creativity I once embraced as a painter between 1990 and 2000.
___________________________________
Paintings
From Woman in Blue series, 2023. L- 38 year Old Woman in Blue. R- 30 Year Old Woman in Blue. Acrylic on linen. 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in. 100 x 80 cm. View paintings at Pulpo Gallery.
In Patrick Tresset’s machine-assisted monochrome paintings of people, human and machine and past and present meet. “To have the impression of brushstrokes floating in deep intense colour, the painting process is derived from old masters, such as Rembrandt, and involves multiple layers of impasto painted by the machine alternating with glazes I apply.“ Patrick Tresset, 2023
My technical approach combines hand-drawn studies, AI-generated imagery, and a custom evolutionary optimization system for brushstrokes placements. The process alternates between machine-painted layers and the application of a cobalt blue glaze — a technique I developed in 2013 while working with Professor Deussen on the e-David painting robot during my Senior Fellowship at the University of Konstanz.
In all of my work I explore human experience using technology, a tool for achieving distance, control and spontaneity. For me, although I am at the origin and participating in all steps of the production process, it is essential that human and mechanical hands manifest as a subtile trace in the outcome."
___________________________________
This work is a result of Tresset's research in 2024 using LLMs (Large Language Models using Google DeepMind's Gemini) to draw from observation, an EACVA project (Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art), led by teams at Goldsmiths College and Konstanz University. [I'm honored that my portrait, is included, drawn in Kvinesdal, Norway in 2014 - Nina/Streaming Museum, 3rd row up from bottom.]
PATRICK TRESSET Artworks, biography, publications, press, interviews: patricktresset.com
From Tresset's 2025 EACVA project experiments using embodied AI agent for conversational visual story-telling.