Ellan Suder-LookingOutwards-02

Creator’s name: Alfred Hoehn

Title of the work above: Drawing Machine Ptolemaios

Year of creation: 2008

I really enjoy the works of Alfred Hoehn, a Swiss artist who constructs large-scale linkage harmonographs. The simple movements of the pendulums create complex images that can look flat/abstract or look almost 3D, depending on how the artist sets the lengths and the diameters of the spinning circles.

The finished product is fun to look at, but the process of watching the image as it’s being drawn is important to the project as well. It’s very mesmerizing and calming –– a few people in the comments section were comparing it to a computer screensaver.

The artist can probably estimate the finished product to an extent, but I like the element of uncertainty. It’s kind of like plugging a random equation and seeing what kind of graph it’ll make.