The Producer as an Engineer
Benjamin Franklin
The Giration Machine
This is a 'Giro-Inspiro' Mark-Making Machine
Machines
An apparatus using mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an intended action.
Machines can be driven by animals and people, by natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.
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Drawing machines
Drawing machines have been developed to not only assist the rendering of life-like drawings but also to create complex patterns and geometrical drawings impossible for a single human.
Machines can be driven by animals and people, by natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.
They are often comprised of a complex series of pulleys and gears that drag a stylus or pen across the paper to leave a mark. They may be operated by a windup mechanism, weights or levers.
Some drawing machines are ‘deployed’ that is they are set up and then operate for a short time using its mechanism, others are used to assist drawing and are operated by the drawing's illustrator. Some of these machines were invented for commercial purposes, such as enlarging and copying images, others were created more for entertainment purposes.
Echo Yang
Echo Yang- uses everyday items and added them to automated machines both old and new, to create artworks. Giving already created automated machines a new purpose and taking them out of their original use to create repetitive patterns which are not perfect but repeat itself in the same mark making such as adding a q-tip to chicken toy. The q- tip is soaked in ink and changed it over whenever they want a new colour added to the page and the process of mark making starts again. The dots stay circular but not neat.
Francois Xavier
Francois Xavier- uses the natural element of wind to draw the streets of Montreal. Using the machine of a wind powered device he drives along the streets for 400km, touring around while the graphite attached to the spinning machine by a piece of string records. Various variables effected this such as traffic, acceleration, wind, sizing of the street he drove down and bumps in the road, the larger the diameter of markings represented high speeds whereas a smaller dark circle indicated traffic, stop lights etc.
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson- using a ink ball on a round tray with paper, goes onto train lines and allows the ball to move and make marks through kinetic energy, as the train stops and starts the ball will be moved but also depending on the engine rumble you can see more purposeful marks as well as lighter marks from vibrations through the carriage. This type of drawing machine is a way to visually represent cities and town transport.
François Xavier Saint Georges
François Xavier Saint Georges- This artist has used traditional Chinese paint brushes and new medical equipment; he has created an autonomous machine that creates a never ending line of paint. As medical equipment such as tubing, is attached onto the Chinese brushes to provide a constant flow of paint to the page. The paint or ink is pumped so sometimes more comes out that expected but creates an image that’s continuous but has random variations of the marks and can be changed by using different amounts of paint/ink and changing the colours used. This process is repeated but layered onto each other.
Graffiti Bot
So Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi- Theses artists wanted to explore the ways between art and machine, creating a self-propelling device on a skateboard that sprays abstract lines onto a wall using a double pendulum, this means no to marks are the same and the patterns a similar but many variations of the same patterns. They called it the ‘senseless drawing bot’ whereby it explores modern forms of graffiti, such as chaotic lines, gestures that create an erratic yet organic look of paint strokes. The machine moves side to side and is equipped with a rotated arm attached to the pendulum, making physics the main control point of the mark making.