Rising Colorspace is an abstract art installation. But instead of being painted by a tortured Pollock wannabe, it's made entirely by a finely tuned robot.

The installation, created by Michael Haas and Julian Adenauer, can be found at Metropol-Park in Berlin. It's the third site-specific robot-powered art piece developed by the pair. Every day, the bot cycles through eight specially formulated colors with a bit of help from a human apprentice. The result is an artwork that's constantly overwriting itself, creating images that look like swaying fields of fluorescent grass, a synthetic Cy Twombly painting, or an analog screensaver. The work is never complete. "Any momentary state is the manifestation of its systemic rules," Haas says. "The process of creation is ideally endless."

Visitors have likened the duo's installations to watching birds peck around a garden. Haas says this is a perfect encapsulation of what they're trying to achieve. "We found out that many of our works contain a surprise for the spectators which leads to a calming effect," he says. "We ask ourselves how to touch people in a gentle way."

Despite the bucolic vision and arty goals, the production is entirely predicated on algorithms and actuators. The robot, dubbed a "Vertwalker," looks like a squashed Roomba and climbs gallery walls using suction created by a small vacuum. Its Arduino-based hardware is controlled by "color protocol" software that instructs the robot to draw parabolic, bow-like lines using a graffiti paint pen.

Silicone tires were specially molded to reduce weight while providing a perfect level of friction. The vacuum lip that creates suction is a carefully constructed, laser cut, polyamide-infused textile. Software has been progressively refined to help the Vertwalker make smooth transitions rather than jerky jumbles of lines.

A close-up of the drawing bot. Sonice Development

"The Vertwalkers are highly specialized machines, pioneering a new field of technology. That's why we had to go this long way of making most of the parts on our own," says Adenauer. In a way, Adenauer and Haas are like the Renaissance painters who had to grind minerals to mix their oil paints or early photographers that learned woodworking to construct their cameras. Haas puts it more poetically: "We create instruments and learn to play them."

In the art world, the right look can make or break a career, so Adenauer and Haas have spent a great deal of time refining their protege's appearance. Originally, the Vertwalkers were clad in black to allow them to work in the background, like stagehands scurrying behind he scenes of a play. More recent iterations feature a brightly colored, 3-D printed chassis that puts the Vertwalker center stage. "Now the robot has the role of a protagonist in an ongoing play," says Haas.

Despite making the Vertwalker more colorful, its creators have no intentions of smoothing it's hard edges. "Many people seeing it find it naked and ask if it would be covered up in the end," says Haas. "We want a frank design, stripped to it´s essential purpose and telling about itself." Like an abstract expressionist with paint splattered jeans, the Vertwalker owns its binary bohemian vibe.

The designers are already working on plans for their next creation. "The design of motion will play a bigger role in our upcoming pieces," says Haas. "A choreography of several Vertwalkers–a mechatronic ballet."