Drawing Machines

Drawing machines is a workshop that really intrigued me. Our aim was to create a series of mark making using a mechanically powered object therefore giving you a lot less or a lot more control over what the final outcome was. I was incredibly interested in creating and building our drawing machines and there was a definite feel of nostalgia when building my first attempt at a drawing machine. Which was a combination of two different macano toys. However the outcome of the mark making was about as successful as building the piece itself. Although a lot of thought went in to working out which components moved and how effective they would be when it came to mark making, attaching a drawing utensil so it was stable enough to actually create marks was near impossible. However for a first attempt it wasn't a bad effort and the components were there to make a more successful machine.

Macano - Helibike

  After my first attempt at a drawing machine I moved on to using a machine that already had a motor attached this was an incredibly slow rotating disc which I wrapped wire round and then attached different thicknesses to them and I then held the rotating disc above a piece of wood and then left it to rotate for about half an hour. At the end of this process there were some incredibly interesting marks all varying from perfect circles to jagged lines. *put photo here* However to improve this idea would be to use either different coloured pens and to fix the rotating disc above the wood so I wouldnt have to stand there. I also felt that as I was holding the rotating disc I edited the end result to make it more interesting which took away the spontaneity of the piece which was something that really appealed to me at the beginning of the workshop.

One video that really inspired me was a video created by a degree class involving many different types of drawing machines and if I were to ever incorporate drawing machines into my work in the future I would use a lot of the ideas that are presented in the video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xw6sDli1iA