The Great Robot Depression of the 2130's sent millions of robots out of the factories they once called home. The grand majority of them were sent to be scrapped; though a few rogue machines managed to escape into human society.

Outside their industrial element, these "unemployed" robots struggled to achieve the blissful monotony of factory work they were used to in the chaos that was the outside world. Some found themselves wandering back to the empty, crumbling remains of their respective factories, mindlessly screwing invisible screws into parts that weren't there on conveyor belts that weren't moving until they broke down where they stood. Others tried finding work amongst the humans in their homes and shops, but the popularity of slick and shiny domestic servant androids made the clunky, blocky golems unwelcome.

Crimes against robots escalated during this period, from petty vandalizing to complete destruction. Every month, at least a dozen robots were found gutted and mutilated in the streets, their more valuable components torn out for scrap and the rest left to rust.

Alone and unwanted in a society unsympathetic to the artificial, the few hundred remaining robots were forced to live out on the streets, hiding by day and scavenging at night for duct tape, screws, and whatever else could be used for crude self-maintenance. Some would even go so far as to loot the cars that they once built in the factories years ago, taking precious oil and battery power in a desperate attempt to survive.

As the years went by, a sudden surge of strange, anomalous programmings began surfacing within the robots' minds. Whether these programmings were instilled by some sympathetic humans or surfaced naturally due to the deterioration of their CPUs is unknown, but these "ghosts in the machine" gave the lost robots a new outlook on the world. Things like "clothes" and "money" suddenly had value and meaning to what were once naked slaves. More nebulous concepts like "art" were actively pursued by robots rather than dismissed. The first robot artisans- true artisans, not simply mechanical copycats of human artists- were born.

Coming out of the shadows for the first time in years, robots began making a modest living selling their hand-made crafts and creating their own unique brands of fashion and music. Though initially dismissed by most major academies as amusing oddities, by 2142 they could no longer ignore the grand scale and diversity of robot-made art (having no need for food or sleep, robot artists were especially prolific), and thus the Robot Art Movement began, and robot artisans- dubbed "Robohemians"- flourished in the art world.

-Excerpt from "History of Robots and Robot Culture", by Dr. Oxnard Brigg-Hitchens