Attending the "Embodied Garden" technology art exhibition of the 2026 World Robot Conference @Beijing

From August 19th to 23rd, 2026, the 2026 World Robot Conference presented a special exhibition titled "Embodied Garden" by Tsinghua University School of Art. This exhibition, hosted by Tsinghua University School of Art, kicked off at Beijing Beiren Yichuang International Convention and Exhibition Center. Focusing on the cutting-edge technologies of embodied intelligence, the exhibition conveys the humanistic core of "technology evolving towards newness and civilization towards goodness", and interprets the value pursuit of technology development centered on people.

Professor Mi Haipeng from Tsinghua University and Liu Mingxin, the vice president of the Planning Department and exhibition curator of Peking University, jointly organized and planned this exhibition. Members of the Milab team, including Yao Zhihao, Li Xueqing, Gao Bingjie, Liu Shaoqing, and Zhao Yuehan, designed and produced the robot art works. This exhibition was created around four themes: "Paradise and Celebration", "Habitation and Ecology", "Elegance and Tourist Attractions", and "Life and Stars". A total of nine robot art scenes were created, featuring a total of 43 pieces of technological art works and exhibits.

"The Moonlit Lotus Pond" was created by artists Gao Bingjie and Gong Xinhjun. It integrates humanoid robots, mechanical arms, chime bells and pianos into an Eastern water landscape, contrasting the precision of the machines with the softness of lotus leaves. The golden circuit patterns on the lotus leaves connect the natural veins with technological symbols, presenting a poetic scene of harmony between tradition and the future, nature and intelligence.

"Feathered Resonance" was created by artists Liu Shaoqing and Zhao Yuhuan. The bird patterns are derived from the bronze ritual vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. From the late Shang period to the Western Zhou period, these patterns gradually became more prevalent, often featuring high crowns, long tails, and spread wings. They embodied the ancient people's imagination of nature, rituals, and divine birds. This design extracts five bird patterns and transforms them into robotic birds with flapping wings, swaying tails, walking, and perching on branches. Each corresponds to the five musical notes: Gong, Shang, Jue, Zheng, and Yu. The approaching and interaction of the audience will trigger different musical parts, enabling the five birds to harmonize and sing together. In the dynamic viewing, a piece of ancient music is generated, presenting traditional patterns, ritual culture, and contemporary expressions of robot technology.

"The Returning Deer" was created by artist Li Xueqing. It recreates the habitat of the deer in Nanshazi Deer Park. A mirror forms a "time-space gate" connecting reality and nature. A deer emerges from the grassland world behind the mirror and steps into the space where the audience is. The landscape behind the mirror is taken from the natural environment of Nanshazi Deer Park, reconstructing the deer's habitat with grasslands, lotus ponds, streams and reed marshes. The work follows the theme of "The Deer Returning" and looks back on the century-long journey of the deer from disappearing in the wild in China, to being preserved overseas, and then returning to its native land. "The Returning Deer" is not only a story of a species returning home, but also points to the possibility of reconnection between humans and nature after ecological restoration.

"Lighting Spring Garden" was created by artist Li Xueqing. The work constructs a future garden composed of mechanical flowers. The inspiration for the piece comes from the growth, expansion and response of natural flowers, and it endows the artificial flowers with dynamic vitality through mechanical structures.

"Residence" was created by artist Yao Zhihao. Inspired by the solitary bird imagery depicted by Wang Shizhen, the work reinterprets the brushstrokes and spirit of traditional ink painting through an actual installation. The mechanical bird perches on the winding and ascending branches. The ups and downs, turns and densities of the branches are transformed into three-dimensional lines with structural sense, allowing the flowing, implicit and abstract expressions in ink painting to enter the real space. Through materials, light and blank spaces, the work reconstructs the relationship between the virtual and the real, the static and the dynamic, and the traditional and the contemporary. It also presents the poetic moment of mutual dependence between life and the environment through the brief and stable state of "residence".

The "Embodied Garden" technology and art exhibition of the 2026 World Robot Conference was jointly created by Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area and Tsinghua University School of Art. Beijing Yizhuang Robot Technology Industry Development Co., Ltd. and the Planning Institute of Peking University served as supporting units. This collaborative creative practice between the university and the local area, as well as between the university and enterprises, not only explored diverse paths for art to empower technological innovation, but also accumulated solid practical experience for the scenario-based transformation of cutting-edge technologies and the future exploration of industrial design. It provided a feasible practical sample for the deep integration of technology and art.