Pen Plotters are all the rage again! Drawing machines continue to capture the maker’s imagination, but we’ve been here before. Since the Renaissance, humans have used machines to draw. Early machines assisted artists in making life-like renderings, but they soon evolved into complex devices that visualize data and measure natural phenomena. They and perform sophisticated mathematical calculations, automate written communication, trace copies of images, study anatomy, and even entertain children. Drawing machines have persisted across the arts, sciences, and humanities for six centuries.
This talk connects the dots between the drawing machines of today and our history of human-machine creative collaborations to inspire the creative art machines of the future! Pablo covers examples of artists like Liz Melchor, who works with a palette knife and pen plotter, creating work as a team. And you’ll learn the history of various drawing machines you never knew existed.
Inspiration
I have always loved to draw. And I have always loved tinkering. It was in the early 2000s that art history research revealed new details about how artists used historical optical and mechanical devices to make incredible works of art. This inspired me to make drawing tools, teach about drawing technology, and research the breadth of human-machine collaborations in creative fields. I have made different art/design projects exploring drawing technology, and this presentation represents over 12 years of studying and making drawing machines.
Pablo Garcia
Pablo Garcia is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His multidisciplinary research practice blends forgotten analog methods with cutting-edge digital technology, paying homage to our long history of human-machine collaborations in art and design. He’s been working on drawing machines like NeoLucida for over a decade, and he showed readers how to build their own in Make: magazine 89.
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