BlurBots mark eddies of activity along the shoreline of the Chicago lakefront: from a distance they appear blurred, their outlines fuzzy and indistinct, but as the visitor approaches, beckoned by their subtle coloration and inviting demeanor their fuzziness resolves into…an even greater but engaging complexity: completely functional kiosks that transcend mundane commercial expectations, emerging from the city fabric to become a striking new icon for Chicago.

The VJPA proposal takes advantage of economic fabrication methods borrowed from industry, including laser cutting, powder-coating, industrial metal break (folding), and yacht rigging. Thanks to digital fabrication technology, sine wave profiles can effortlessly become blades of grass or stegosaurus fins to proliferate a series of BlurBots for all the seasons of the year. In addition to scripts written to vary the amplitude of the sine curve “waves” in a random pattern, manual interventions and adjustments made during the design phase introduce appropriate irregularity and fuzziness into the piece.