What I have been working on, drawing machines

Well, it has been a while since my last post and update, too long.... but I have been working on a load of stuf, I have been drawn to (pardon the pun) and experimenting with drawing machines. One direction I wanted to take was to to strip the process back to as basic a function as possibleand see what could be achieved with minimal external influence.

I have designed and created a piece I call "Octo-Sketch" (patent pending btw)

and have made up and tested a model of it, it is a load of fun and something I am working on developing further. The idea here is to have multiple participants interacting with the machine all at once. The quality of output is not important, what matters here is how the different participants interact and what sort of interplay comes of it.

I plan to produce it from clear perspex on the laser cutter and present it packaged as a game in a board game box. I wanted to have some fun with this project and this is a good way, I think.

back to work

Between half term, being ill and working I have taken a little break and to be honest it is a good thing, I was worried about getting too obsessed and perhaps a bit overloaded which can happen to me, so a concious step back at this point was necessary. Today I will mostly spend reviewing what I have so far, tidying up some ideas and continuing on a fun new line of reseach into drawing machines. I found a fun video of a turntable spirograph and thought about how fun a drawing machine could be so this is my research and testing for today. It makes sense for this project to be about making images and not just viewing them, I suppose it is the natural progression of the idea.  What I found so far  
Happy to back into it and excited for what I may create. Stay tuned for more contraptions!

.. later that same day....

So I think I would like to definitely use non circular gears for this, oval ones which have variable phasing so all pens move at at different speeds, this could yield some interesting results and these gifs I found ( courtesy of http://stirlingengineforum )  show  how a mechanism could come out looking

I wonder which shapes will work better, although that said they would all work perfectly well just yield different results.
I hope to get at least one working cardboard maquette finished tomorrow, with arms and pencils.
I think this is a much better idea tha a contraption that does not do a great deal of anything, as fun as that would be.. does it really fit the ideas I am working with, I wonder.

Contraption number 2

 So the maquette for my second contraption came out today, this is a 4 cog version ( no point making all 7 or 8, the idea works and besides, it nearly killed my still recovering shoulder), the final will be a freestanding situation,

possibly with6 maybe 7x 20 inch cogs, these are 10 and will be an offset skewiff type thing with the centre cog driven by a handle resembling bike pedals. I thought about mounting it on a shovel or broom or something but that won't work so it would have to be a purpose built "wobbly stick" thing with a broom or shovel head on the bottom.. for a bit of fun.I'm thinking the top one should be the image viewer with the acetates and a projection light but I am not sure, I think really these contraptions should stay as they are.. a bit of purposeless, harmless pedal powered fun.

I like it, I am feeling more confident about the project in general and looking forward to putting these contraptions together as well as working on the others I want to do. I have looked at people like Arthur Ganson's contraptions and some Rube Goldberg machines for inspiration, well I say that but I have already been making these and then came across this stuff, great to make and I hope, fun in an exhibition setting.

contraption number 1

Today I was able to get a first maquette done so am now more easily able to plan out my gadgets and contraptions, these hopefully will be done on the laser cutter with wood and painted. I'd like to make it look a little funky so the cogs are like rotary phone dials and you intuitively go up and start dialling it.. now I am still undecided as to whether or not it will serve a purpose, I think this one I think will not though. It is a combo of inspirations from Metropollis and Duchamp's Disks Bearing Spirals, I want the whimsical side, the piece for the sake of it, if it makes you smile it has worked. I enjoy watching the cogs go round and am really looking forward to building the real deals. I also feel a lot better about the brief in general, less stuck, floating and wandering, more focused so full steam ahead eh...there is  plenty of design work to go but at least the ideas will work, stay tuned for more mad machinery and weird artwork!