Mari Velonaki has worked as an artist in the field of interactive installation art since 1997. She has created interactive installations that incorporate movement, speech, touch, breath and electrostatic charge. In 2003 Mari’s practice expanded to robotics, when she initiated and led a major Australian Research Council project, Fish–Bird 2004–2007, in collaboration with roboticists at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

In 2006 she co-founded, with David Rye, the Centre for Social Robotics, a centre dedicated to inter-disciplinary research. In 2007 Mari was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship and in 2009 an Australia Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (2009–13). Mari is currently an associate professor and the director of the Creative Robotics Lab at NIEA, COFA, UNSW. Mari’s work has been widely exhibited.