Drawing Machines

From environmentally powered drawings to computer vision and motors, drawing machines serve as a vehicle to visualize the energy patterns in the world around us in new and interesting ways. In this class, we will examine drawing machines from the perspective of the hacker and the inventor, applying technical and nontechnical tools alike to create emergent behaviors in our work. The class will begin with a survey of practitioners within the field of process-oriented art and evolve into an exploration of basic interactive circuitry and programming. We will spend a significant amount of time learning how to build projects with the Arduino microcontroller platform. A series of in-class prototyping workshops will introduce students to a variety of materials and building strategies, while outside-of-class assignments will build upon each week’s explorations into generative art-making techniques. In addition to regular class meetings and conferences, students will be expected to participate in weekly group workshops that will facilitate skill sharing and group problem solving. Experimentation and learning through concerted effort will be paramount.