The Robotic Birds, by Paul Granjon, are very simple robots based on small electric motors and LEDs. They chirp and swing on their cable.

The birds display several behaviours according to the intensity of ambient light and some semi random parameters. BBC micro runs a program that makes the birds chirp, swing and flash. They tend to converse in pairs, and sometimes one goes into a bird solo.

The artist created two flocks of robotic birds.

The first one comprises 4 members, and is installed in the premises of Access Space, in Sheffield, UK.

The 8 birds of the second flock are part of the installation Automated Forest. When artificial night falls upon the forest, the birds progressively get silent, and fireflies start glowing in the dark. When day comes again, the birds sing loud and clear. A day lasts 40 minutes, a night 10 minutes, with dusk and dawn taking 5 minutes each.

Short movie of two robotic birds in conversation.

Granjon (also author of the Cybernetic Parrot Sausage and of the strange Furman) will be talking at Blip, in Brighton, UK, tonight at 7.30pm.