Creative Robotics

Creative robotics is a field that sits deliberately at the intersection of technology and artistic practice, asking what happens when engineers think like artists and artists think like engineers. Robots and autonomous systems have traditionally been understood as industrial tools, but creative robotics explores their potential as expressive, performative and social agents, developing machines that move, respond, communicate and create in ways that go far beyond conventional automation. At the University of the Arts, London this three-year programme, rooted in one of the world's leading art and design universities, develops that creative-technical synthesis with genuine depth.

You will develop skills in robotics engineering and programming alongside creative practice in areas including performance, installation, interactive design and generative art. The programme develops your ability to design and build robotic systems that are aesthetically and conceptually intentional, and to understand the social and cultural implications of autonomous systems in the world. A sandwich year gives you the opportunity to gain substantial professional experience before completing your degree, and work placements are embedded throughout the programme.

UAL's extraordinary creative community and its location in London, with its dense ecosystem of galleries, studios and technology organisations, provide an exceptional context for work that bridges these worlds.

Graduates of creative robotics are genuinely distinctive in the graduate market, with a profile that is relevant to a growing range of organisations and contexts. Performance art and theatre, interactive installation, science museums, technology companies working on social or companion robots, design consultancies, film and television production and academic research are among the destinations. The field is expanding as robotics and autonomous systems become more embedded in everyday life and culture, and practitioners who can engage with the creative, ethical and social dimensions of that expansion alongside its technical dimensions are increasingly sought after.

Some graduates go on to postgraduate study in robotics, interaction design, performance technology or art and technology.