A R T I S T S ’ N O T E
Mestizo Robotics
G U S T AV O C R E M B I L A N D P A U L A G A E T A N O A D I
With a cultural and material “cannibalistic” approach, the authors
A BST R A C T
aim to revise certain technological discourses by introducing TZ’IJK,
a “mestizo” robotic artwork developed in the Peruvian Amazon. Far
from the utopian visions of Hollywood sci-fi movies populated by highly
intelligent, anthropomorphic and responsive machines, TZ’IJK employs a
combination of high and low technologies that embody Latin America’s
anthropophagic, postcolonial and hybrid nature. Mestizo Robotics
proposes an alternative approach to the development of embodied
artificial life forms, from both theoretical and technological viewpoints.
In the New World’s Spanish colonies, craft workshops cul-
tivated fertile operations of knowledge cross-transference
between Spanish craft masters and indigenous apprentices
and established the ground base for the development of a
“Baroque subjectivity” that persists today. Tropicalismo,
Mangue Bit, along with less programmatic and popular ap-
propriations such as telenovelas, carnival, tango and cumbia
music, are just a few examples of the art that was born as
a consequence of mestizaje—a phenomenon far from har-
monic but rather “an heterogeneous juxtaposition aiming
toward hybridity” [1], interactions, interchanges and reap-
propriations [2–4].
Mestizaje is normally understood as a process that blends
races or languages. Can its dynamics be extended to help bet-
ter understand or experiment with the realm of making, of
things? Outside the nativisms that use the idea of mestizaje to
hide the contradictions (and privileges) of uneven develop-
ment and cultural exploitation, could a “mestizo technology”
be possible? Can a “mestizo technology” promote an otro
Gustavo Crembil (architect, educator), Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, U.S.A. Email: <crembg@rpi.edu>.
Paula Gaetano Adi (artist, educator), Experimental and Foundation Studies,
Rhode Island School of Design, 2 College Street, Providence, RI 02903, U.S.A.
Email: <pgaetano@risd.edu>.
See <www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/50/2> for supplemental files associated
with this issue.
Article Frontispiece. Amazónico TZ’IJK robot (close up) before
quincha plastering, San Roque de Cumbaza, Peru, summer 2013.
(© Gaetano Adi/Crembil. Photo: Alejandro Borsani.)
©2017 ISAST doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01150
future of “crabs with brains” [5]—an inclusive programmatic
platform where dirt and mud are seen not as a representation
exclusively of poverty but also one of life and biodiversity [6,7]?
Aiming to confront these questions in the field, we ar-
rived at San Roque de Cumbaza, in the Peruvian Amazonian
highlands, to develop a robotic prototype (Fig. 1). Initially,
we were looking for contributions to our project: local arti-
sans who could help to build our project and context outside
the protection of our studios and labs. We arrived not know-
ing much, except the remoteness of this location. Not many
years ago the area was under the disputed control of Sendero
Luminoso (the Shining Path), a Maoist guerilla group ac-
tive during the 1980s. The local peasants often mentioned
nearby matanzas (killings) and enfrentamientos (warring);
tour operators we met quickly dismissed the conflicts, as they
did not want their eco-branding efforts tarnished with recent
violence. We soon learned that la selva (the jungle) was not
just a metaphor; it was ominously present. In the jungle, all
is gutted and swallowed, without negotiation. Mestizaje, here,
is not a plan but a consequence. That is perhaps the most
profound and radical condition of this place: Despite the
intentions of colonization, the pretensions of capital to ben-
efit and the ideals of missionaries and ecotourists, the jungle
exerts its will and the rule is survival. And it rains often,
very often.
TZ’IJK
TZ’IJK (mud or clay in the Mayan language Ch’orti’) is a ro-
botic art installation composed of a community of blind, deaf
and “dumb” autonomous mobile agents “made with mud.”
Inspired by the Quiché Maya’s narration of the creation of the
world, the project attempts to bring to life the most popular
Latin American mytho-historical story of the earth’s first hu-
man inhabitants.
The Popol Vuh (the Book of the People) ascribes the cre-
ation of man only with the purpose of serving the gods.
According to the narration, man was created as a being
far inferior to the gods, considered nothing more than an
imperfect automaton, subject to divine whims and fancies.
LEONARDO, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 132–137, 2017 133
 Fig. 1. Geodesic structure completed with internal mechanism, ready to be plastered with quincha paste,
San Roque de Cumbaza, Peru, summer 2013. (© Gaetano Adi/Crembil. Photo: Alejandro Borsani.)

After the earth and animals were created, the gods in fact Our first robotic prototype, El Amazónico (the Amazo-
made several false starts in setting humanity upon the earth. nian) (Article Frontispiece and Figs 2 and 3), consisted of a
The first attempt was a man created out of mud, which soon 48-inch-diameter mud-covered sphere with an internal mo-
proved unsuccessful; the mud men lacked speech, souls and bile mechanism. The structure is defined by a series of layered
intellect. They were useless, blind and clumsy automatons and interlocked geodesic systems. The first layer is an interior
without understanding, insight or perceptiveness [8]. laser-cut transparent polycarbonate geodesic membrane (3v
Leaving behind the imaginary inventory of literature and frequency) reinforced by a rib-frame bolted together with the
mythology, humanity’s quest to replicate living beings goes folded flaps of the pentagon and hexagon faces. This layer is
back thousands of years. As a natural consequence, the dis- then tied together with a spherical circle-covering armature
course of robotics and artificial life has always resembled made with angarilla, a very flexible indigenous wood. The
different creationist myths, as if the idea
of creating synthetic beings was a way to
challenge God or evolution or a way to
please our profound creationist desires.
Far from the utopias of super-intelligent,
anthropomorphic and responsive ma-
chines, TZ’IJK proposes an ironic posi-
tion different from the view of an agent
as a competent system of autonomy and
determination, which seems to be the he-
gemonic rhetoric when trying to make
an artificial technological creature in
the “image and likeness” of the human
being.

Fig. 2. Local builder Regner Cachique Sangama

plastering external quincha skin, San Roque de
Cumbaza, Peru, summer 2013. (© Gaetano Adi/
Crembil. Photo: Alejandro Borsani.)

134 Crembil and Gaetano Adi, Mestizo Robotics

last grid-shell functions also as the base structure for the sources of different Latin American “makers”—allowing for
exterior quincha (a precolonial building technique) surface, the emergence of new ideas, processes and technologies that
which is completed by intertwining and plastering with a naturally fit into the existing social order, traditions and local
paste of mixed clay mud and thick grass. Enclosed inside expertise of our Latino-American partners [11].
the wet-mud sphere, a battery-powered three-wheeled device
runs on its interior surface altering the balance, causing the MESTIZO ROBOTICS
sphere to wobble and move. The mechanism weighs over 87 Drawn from the lessons of mestizaje and motivated by critical
lbs and is built with two gearmotors of 1300in-lbs peak torque theories of postcolonial technoscience, we claim a tactical ap-
controlled by a motor controller that allows both remote proach to the use of technologies, in which western methods,
control applications and an autonomous performance using knowledges and colonial technologies are not accepted pas-
Arduino [9]. sively but are adapted and selectively absorbed in relation to
El Amazónico was presented not as a finished piece but the existing traditions and local knowledges [12]. We call our
as an in-progress robot to be dialogically developed/fabri- approach Mestizo Robotics, denoting a set of tools that not
cated in collaboration with the local community. In Peru, only provides us tactics for understanding how technology
the mestizaje resulted from the collabo-
ration with Regner Cachique Sangama
and Adriel Vazquez Saavedra, two native
residents and construction laborers who
worked with us during the entire build-
ing process, actively proposing material
changes and practical solutions. Their
wives and children would also help, not
only by participating in the making of the
piece, but also by engaging in rich con-
versations about robots, local legends
and stories regarding the town and its
people. We understood, then, the neces-
sity of settling our workspace outside the
confines of the residency.
Despite the challenge presented by
moving out of the studio, we decided to
relocate our activities to the central plaza.
Soon a very different work dynamic
started to emerge—much less controlled Fig. 3. The Amazónico prototype recently plastered, San Roque de Cumbaza, Peru,
but more open to enable social engage- summer 2013. (© Gaetano Adi/Crembil. Photo: Alejandro Borsani.)
ment and the possibility for mestizaje
(Fig. 4). At the plaza, what was initially
a “foreign object” was quickly absorbed
into the village’s daily life, going from an
odd distant curiosity to a central gather-
ing point [10]. The robot brought about
all kinds of informal discussions and
mixed feelings; a contradictory sense of
pride for the uniqueness of this robot
along with some disappointment for its
lack of anthropomorphic qualities and
the simplicity of its behavior.
The experience in the Amazonian vil-
lage revealed to us the next stage of the
project, which now exists as an extended
and long-term artistic/educational initia-
tive for the creation of different “Mestizo
Robots” across the Americas. The project
now proposes an open platform for ad-
aptations, coalitions, negotiations, appro- Fig. 4. Schoolchildren interacting with the robot in the plaza, San Roque de Cumbaza, Peru,
priations and integrations of our original summer 2013. The wet-mud skin starts collapsing under its own weight. (© Gaetano Adi/Crembil.
TZ’IJK robot to the knowledges and re- Photo: Alejandro Borsani.)

Crembil and Gaetano Adi, Mestizo Robotics 135

 is embodied, appropriated, transformed and assimilated in
Latin America but also allows us to envision the emergence
of a situated, embodied and enactive paradigm for the cre-
ation of artificial life creatures [13].
Mestizo Robotics offers no absolute escape from paradox
or quick cultural and technological fixes. However, taking
full advantage of the embodied and situated intelligences of
the arts, we propose the emergence of a new kind of synthetic
agents, in which their technological hybrid embodiment de-
termines their performance and behavior.
Mestizo Robotics emphasizes the “situatedness” of tech-
noscience and advocates the integration of high and low
technological materials, processes and cultures. For us, mes-
tizaje is not a theoretical quality but an inevitable approach to
making. Our attitude toward robotics promotes the intersec-
tion of computation, physical materials and manufacturing
processes with traditional crafts and design, in hopes that we
will illuminate the creation of a new robotic morphology:
the mestizo robots.
Therefore, Mestizo Robotics shows an equal preoccupa-
tion with the robot’s physical structure (appearance) and its
performance (behavior). Here, either the robot’s goal and
surroundings substantially influence its design or its design
and materiality substantially influence its goals and sur-
roundings. In Mestizo Robotics, as in any other process of
Acknowledgments
The first robotic prototype of TZ’IJK was made possible by the
“Iberoamerican Production Incentive” granted by Fundación Telefónica,
VIDA 14.0: International Competition in Art and Artificial Life, 2012.
Our stay in the Peruvian Amazon was part of a monthlong residency at
Sachaqa Art Center in San Roque de Cumbaza. Design assistants: Tom
Roland, Alec Dumond, Cat Callagan and Travis Lydon. Robotic devel-
opment: Chris Rogers (Inspectorbots). The final version of this article
benefited from discussions and reviews from Selma Cohen, PhD, and
Priscilla Solis Ybarra, PhD.
References and Notes
For a more extended version of this text, see G. Crembil and
P. Gaetano Adi, “Mestizo Robotics,” in Re-New 2013 Proceedings, ed-
ited by G. Nadarajan (Copenhagen: Re-New Digital Arts Forum, 2013)
pp. 96–100.
1 This is a nonfusioned, nontransculturalized notion of mestizaje. See
George Yudice, “De la antropofagia al sampling: nuevas experiencias
de heterogeneidad e hibridismo en las culturas latinoamericanas”
(Keynote Lecture) Conference La Jornada Literaria 2005. Rutgers
Univ., New Brunswick, November 2005.
2 Néstor García Canclini, Hybrid Cultures, Strategies for Entering and
Leaving Modernity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1995).
3 Serge Gruzinsky, The Mestizo Mind (New York: Routledge, 2002).
4 F. Laplantine and A. Nouss, Mestizajes, de Arcimboldo a zombi (Bue-
nos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007).
5 Caranguejos com Cerebro (Crabs with Brains) is the foundational
manifesto of the Mangue Bit music movement from Recife, Brazil
written by Fred 04 and DJ Renato in 1992.
136 Crembil and Gaetano Adi, Mestizo Robotics
mestizaje, behavior, materiality and environment affect each
other and cannot be understood as independent entities.
Our mestizo robots are cognitive and autonomous agents
that—like any other mestizo—avoid binary logic and so
escape from the cognitivist and simplistically Cartesian
worldview that surrounds “good old-fashioned artificial in-
telligence” and cognitive science [14–17]. Mestizo robots em-
phasize bottom-up processes by which intelligence emerges
and evolves in lived experience, particularly in interactions
with the environments that enhance the agent’s present situ-
ation [18].
Within this framework, TZ’IJK is simply our first artis-
tic attempt at a mestizo approach to robotics. We propose
an aesthetic approach that promotes a rhetoric that allows
contradictions and ambiguity, complicating the traditional
dichotomies of craft/technology, Western/indigenous, mod-
ern/traditional, global/local, developed/undeveloped, big-
science/small-science, high/low and theory/practice.
By recuperating native and indigenous technologies for
the creation of autonomous and intelligent robotic agents,
TZ’IJK does not pretend to resolve complex technological
dilemmas but only proposes to become a truthful “mestizo”
agent that can finally lead us to better understand how ideas
about difference are enacted and distributed in the perfor-
mance of technoscience.
6 Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmak-
ing of the Third World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995).
7 Walter Mignolo, Local Histories/Global Designs; Coloniality, Sub-
altern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Univ. Press, 2012).
8 Popol Vuh, The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, Dennis Tedlock,
trans. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
9 A short video documentation for the Amazónico prototype can be
seen at <www.mestizorobotics.com/amazonico>.
10 Some of the activities that took place while the robot inhabited the
plaza included building a shelter for the rain, taking shifts to watch
the robot at night, and pushing it across the hill or just having normal
school classes, soccer matches, and French bracelets sessions next to
the robot as a way of embracing its existence in the town.
11 Advanced conversations are in development with the Laboratorio de
Arte Electrónico e Inteligencia Artificial at the Universidad Nacional
de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires; and the Nano Lab at the School
of Fine Arts, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Other target
locations include art collectives or institutions in major cities such
as Mexico DF, Bogotá, Caracas, Lima, Quito, and Santiago.
12 Warwick Anderson, “Introduction: ‘Postcolonial Technscience,’ ” So-
cial Studies of Science 32, No. 5–6, pp. 643–648 (October–December
2002).
13 F. Varela, E. Thompson and E. Rosch, The Embodied Mind (Cam-
bridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993).
14 Hubert Dreyfus, What Computers Still Can’t Do (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1992).
15 R. Arkin, Behavioral-based Robotics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
1998).
16 J. Johnson, The Allure of Machinic Life (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
2010).
17 Stan Franklin, Artificial Minds (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).
18 Our approach to robotics and artificial intelligence is inspired by the
popularized behavior-based approach, a purely reactive behavior-
based method developed in the 1990s by Rodney Brooks drawn from
the lesson of Artificial Life that rejected symbolic computation and
allies with Francisco Valera’s theory of “enaction.”
Manuscript received 27 August 2014.
GUSTAVO CREMBIL is an Argentine architect whose prac-
tice draws from the fields of architecture, craft, performance
art, communication and political activism. A former Fulbright
scholar, he is currently an Associate Professor at the Rensselaer
School of Architecture.
PAULA GAETANO ADI is an Argentine artist and currently
an Assistant Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Her work emerges from the interdisciplinary space of robot-
ics, art, and performance, and has been exhibited extensively
around the world.

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Crembil and Gaetano Adi, Mestizo Robotics 137