If you’ve ever wanted to decorate your home with sculptures that appear to have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself, now is the time.
Italy has created a robot that carves marble statues in the style of Michelangelo. The mechanical Michelangelo was created by a company named Robotor. According to CBS News, Robotor’s creator, Giacomo Massari, believes these machine-sculpted monuments are as excellent as those made by people.
“I think, let’s say, we are in 99 percent,” Massari told CBS. “But it’s still the human touch [that] makes the difference. That one percent is so important,” he added.
Massari also said that “robot technology does not steal the job of the humans, but just improves it.”
The robot’s name is “1L,” and it stands 13 feet tall. It’s a zinc alloy robot that can precisely chip away at marble and create excellent outcomes.
“We are entering a new era of sculpture, which no longer consists of broken stones, chisels, and dust, but of scanning, point clouds, and design,” Robotor’s website says. “The quarried material can now be transformed, even in extreme conditions, into complex works in a way that was once considered unimaginable.”
Sculptors who have spent their entire lives perfecting their craft will be disappointed, even though the technology itself seems exceptional. Since sculpture is an ancient art, many artists believe that if it is entirely mechanized, the talent of hand-sculpting would be lost to history.
While it’s true that it may or may not eventuate, it’s nevertheless amazing to see how quickly man is advancing technology, which seemed unthinkable only just few years ago.