Multi Layered Autonomy and AI Ecologies in Robotic Art Installations

TL;DR

This paper describes a large-scale robotic art installation that uses layered AI ecologies and a hierarchical control system to create an immersive, interactive experience where robots and viewers co-author the artwork, exploring themes of agency and responsibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-layered AI ecology framework for robotic art, integrating adaptive behaviors, narrative drives, and ethical considerations in a large-scale immersive installation.

Findings

Robots respond dynamically to environmental cues and viewer interactions.

The hierarchical AI system enables organic evolution of behaviors.

The installation challenges traditional notions of authorship and agency in art.

Abstract

This paper presents Symbiosis of Agents, is a large-scale installation by Baoyang Chen (baoyangchen.com), that embeds AI-driven robots in an immersive, mirror-lined arena, probing the tension between machine agency and artistic authorship. Drawing on early cybernetics, rule-based conceptual art, and seminal robotic works, it orchestrates fluid exchanges among robotic arms, quadruped machines, their environment, and the public. A three tier faith system pilots the ecology: micro-level adaptive tactics, meso-level narrative drives, and a macro-level prime directive. This hierarchy lets behaviors evolve organically in response to environmental cues and even a viewer's breath, turning spectators into co-authors of the unfolding drama. Framed by a speculative terraforming scenario that recalls the historical exploitation of marginalized labor, the piece asks who bears responsibility in AI-mediated futures. Choreographed motion, AI-generated scripts, reactive lighting, and drifting fog cast the robots as collaborators rather than tools, forging a living, emergent artwork. Exhibited internationally, Symbiosis of Agents shows how cybernetic feedback, robotic experimentation, and conceptual rule-making can converge to redefine agency, authorship, and ethics in contemporary art.