About the e-David Project
e-David is a long-running art and research project at the University of Konstanz, exploring what happens when a machine picks up a paintbrush. Led by Prof. Oliver Deussen and developed by generations of Ph.D. students and artists, e-David investigates how intelligent systems can become creative partners rather than mere tools. The project sits at the intersection of visual computing, robotics, and contemporary painting, reimagining artistic practice through algorithms and mechanical gestures.
Over the years, e-David has grown through continuous experimentation with new technologies and artistic approaches. Collaborations with artists such as Liat Grayver, Anna Mirkin, Patrick Tresset, Gretta Louw, and Daniel Berio have been essential in shaping its creative direction. Their involvement has helped transform e-David from a purely technical research endeavor into a living artistic platform, where human intuition and machine intelligence meet on the canvas.
e-David’s works have been exhibited in Konstanz, Leipzig, Berlin (at the EACVA Symposium), Karlsruhe (in collaboration with Gretta Louw), and Zürich (both solo and together with the Machine Arts Group around Sofie Mart). Along the way, the project has received multiple prizes at the international RoboArt competition, highlighting its pioneering role at the intersection of art and robotics.
Today, Michael Stroh leads the project as project lead, manager, and artist, advancing both its technical and aesthetic dimensions. His current work focuses on a layered, region-based painting approach, where images are broken down into structured fields of color and form. The robot then builds up the painting in successive layers, shifting between precise rendering and expressive abstraction. This method gives the paintings their distinctive tension between calculation and gesture—between machine logic and painterly intuition.
At its core, e-David is both a machine and a collaborator. Using cameras, algorithms, and brushes, the system observes its evolving work, compares it to a target image, and decides on its next move. Through this feedback loop, the robot adapts its strokes on the fly, producing artworks that are neither purely human nor purely mechanical, but the result of an ongoing dialogue between intelligences.
The e-David lab and offices are located at the University of Konstanz (Floor ZT8 and Z603), where visitors can often witness robot and human painting side by side, see painted results and interact with the team behind e-David. You can follow the project’s journey on Instagram @edavidrobot and on Youtube @ithron_minya.
The e-David project 