plotter

Degradation Study

In this experiment I fed back images into the system which created them so that the subsequent image degraded in each instantiation.

This fade to black approximates the effects of massified circulation of images where it seems that over time the images which once shocked, after repeated exposure, seem hardly able to elicit any response at all.

Black and White Atrocity

I continue to question the ethics of representing atrocity and the ironic dissipation of the moral force of images of atrocity within the society of the spectacle.

Lines: Frequency Study

This is simple algorithm for the plotter where it draws a series of parrallel lines with variable frequency to fill the page.

Mimesis/Synthesis

In these plotter drawings two systems of representation are contrasted: mimesis, wherein the form of the representation is derived through a process of imitation; and synthesis, wherein the form is derived by a process of virtual ontogenesis -- that is the form is made in a way analogous to the process of growth in the referent.

Perlin Clocks

The multi-dimensional gradient noise provided by Ken Perlin's algorithm is the compass for this minimal study in variation accross a grid. The direction of the line is determined by perlin noise.

Photo Strands or Stochastic Photography

The constraints of drawing with an antiquated plotter include the difficulty of drawing anything but straight lines. So to represent photographic images took some creativity. This software draws random lines in a density inversely proportionate to the light density of each area in the photograph.

Forest

The multication of trees, a forest makes.

Simulated Tree

A more naturalistic simulation of the tree avoids obvious fractal geometricizing self-similarities and adds a hint of randomness.

Fractal Tree

The first drawing algorithm I tried, after writing a java driver for my HP7475 plotter, was a recursive tree algorithm. These simple figures based on repeated uniform bifurcations produce almost perfect fractal structures. They are varied by changing the ratio of the left and right branches, the thickness of subsequent branches, etc.

Plotter Drawings

Working in software has made me particularly interested in the fetishization of the artist's hand. That is why a drawing machine is a particularly attractive output device. It mediates the gesture of the hand drawn and the machinic world of software which is most often present to us now as the bloodless surface of a screen.