(Soonho, Harsh, Akshat)
For this project, our group is attempting to make a “anti-drawing” or a “co-drawing” machine that allows for either a disrupted or collaborative drawing through a machine that manipulates the rotation and position of an ordinary paper material. This “machine” exists at that very fine line between disruption and collaboration, trying to be a little bit of both at the same time. Hopefully, what comes of as “erratic” and “spontaneous” behavior by the machine actually ends up producing a product more interesting than before.
A defining adjective for out machine will be “Mischievous” – holding that line between “disadvantageous” and “predictable”.
In terms of the user experience, we are thinking of having ordinary papers with pre-drawn stencils that users would be instructed to trace without lifting their pens. (what exactly those stencils are, we’re still unclear on). However, upon certain sensing thresholds, the paper would be translated or rotated, leading to an imperfect trace and a whimsical experience.
The action ends up being “seemingly” random – where it appears as though there is no pattern to the movement – but in fact the action is triggered by a range of environmental factors, including where the user is on the page and others. This triggering then leads to a more dynamic drawing system – where the machine’s unpredictability shifts the power dynamic between the human and the machine – where the computer is no longer a “perfect slave” – but a mischievous actor.
Ultimately, our art piece aims to highlight this idea that robots and technology have the capacity to draw out greater iterations with the same rules, and collaboratively can lead to a creation that is entirely unique.
Some References:
Vera Molnar – Interruptions
Harold Cohen – Aaron
Sougwen Chung – Drawing Operations
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