Geometric Abstraction by Machines
VSW24:Painting Art Project
Assessment 3
Drawing Automaton (Robot) http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=PR_kFssrpms
Geometric Abstraction by Machines
- Final Work
1
Concept
The purpose of this project is to investigate the use of home-made or repurposed machines to generate geometric patterns.
Jackson Pollock redefined what it was to produce art. He removed prior boundaries to making art. His move away from conventionality was a liberating signal to future artists.
It is my endeavour that machine assisted art will expand my horizons and lead me to new forms of artistic expression.
2
History of Machine Art
Tools and machines are as old as civilisation itself. If architecture is considered as part of the arts, then machines have been used in art for millennia. More recently, men have invented automata (a self-operating machine) to mimic human actions such as singing, playing a musical instrument, dancing, writing or sketching; as well as mimicking animal actions.
Swiss-born, London-based clockmaker and inventor, Henri Maillardet, built c. 1800 the humanoid automaton “Draughtsman-Writer” that wrote three poems (two in French and one in English) and could draw four different pictures. The memory for each artwork is contained in the mechanical cams. “As the cams are turned by the clockwork motor, three steel fingers follow their irregular edges. The fingers translate the movements of the cams into side to side, front and back, and up and down movements of the doll's writing hand through a complex system of levers and rods that produce the markings on paper.”
“Draughtsman-Writer” automaton by Henri Maillardet, c. 1800
(http://www.fi.edu/learn/scitech/automaton/automaton.php?cts=instrumentation)
3
“Automata, such as Maillardet's automaton, demonstrated mankind's efforts to imitate life by mechanical means—and are fascinating examples of the intersection of art and science.”
They were built by people who
Assessment 3
Drawing Automaton (Robot) http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=PR_kFssrpms
Geometric Abstraction by Machines
- Final Work
1
Concept
The purpose of this project is to investigate the use of home-made or repurposed machines to generate geometric patterns.
Jackson Pollock redefined what it was to produce art. He removed prior boundaries to making art. His move away from conventionality was a liberating signal to future artists.
It is my endeavour that machine assisted art will expand my horizons and lead me to new forms of artistic expression.
2
History of Machine Art
Tools and machines are as old as civilisation itself. If architecture is considered as part of the arts, then machines have been used in art for millennia. More recently, men have invented automata (a self-operating machine) to mimic human actions such as singing, playing a musical instrument, dancing, writing or sketching; as well as mimicking animal actions.
Swiss-born, London-based clockmaker and inventor, Henri Maillardet, built c. 1800 the humanoid automaton “Draughtsman-Writer” that wrote three poems (two in French and one in English) and could draw four different pictures. The memory for each artwork is contained in the mechanical cams. “As the cams are turned by the clockwork motor, three steel fingers follow their irregular edges. The fingers translate the movements of the cams into side to side, front and back, and up and down movements of the doll's writing hand through a complex system of levers and rods that produce the markings on paper.”
“Draughtsman-Writer” automaton by Henri Maillardet, c. 1800
(http://www.fi.edu/learn/scitech/automaton/automaton.php?cts=instrumentation)
3
“Automata, such as Maillardet's automaton, demonstrated mankind's efforts to imitate life by mechanical means—and are fascinating examples of the intersection of art and science.”
They were built by people who