Drawing Machines

1. What did we do?

For this assignment we were first split up into groups, then we were given a motor, battery pack and batteries. We tested them out first to make sure they were working before we started our project. The assignment was to create a “Drawing Machine” with a trait that we picked from the notecards- we picked “youthful”. Madi, Alexa and I brainstormed ideas and decided that we could work with a cone that we found and make it spin, causing the paint to splat onto the walls of our box. I cut windows in our box so that it would be viewable from the sides.

Our drawing machine hangs from two wooden sticks along the top of the box, and spins underneath. There’s a large paper underneath and two on the sides, these two ended up being the most visually interesting because the speed of our motor was so fast that it created small multicolored polkadots.

2. What did you learn?

With this project we learned about how to work with a motor and that this is only one of multiple ways that it can be made into a “drawing machine”. It was so interesting to see everyones take on the drawing machine. We also had a lot of problem solving going on in our group. When the strings were causing a problem with the motion of our drawing machine, we decided that it didn’t even need to be hanging from strings, and so the strings became part of the pieces holding the paint.

We learned that mark making doesn't have to be made by hand to be “art”. The drawing machine that we made served as the creator of the marks and sort of had a mind of its own which made it interesting to see what it would create. We also learned how to make our drawing machine in a way that shows it’s “youthful” personality.

3. What do you want to know now?

I would like to explore more possibilities with drawing machines. I enjoyed this assignment and it left me wanting to make more! I would like to learn how to make a walking drawing machine that crawls across a paper leaving its footprints.

I would also like to see students in a classroom getting inspired with this drawing machine activity, I feel like this would be an assignment that a lot of students would enjoy and really get into.

4. How might we work with these tools in classrooms?

This assignment would be really good for those students who like building and constructing. I could see students really getting involved in the building part, and the mark making at the end is the icing on top. This assignment also takes “control” out of the art making, which would be refreshing for students.

The presentation part of the assignment is also really fun as well, it gives a spot light on their work by letting it do it’s own thing.

When all of the paintings/drawings are complete, it would be nice for the students to hang them all up and look at the diversity between all of the mark making that their drawing machines created.

Reflect on how the marks made yesterday compare to marks you've made previously, i.e., with other kinds of tools.

I’ve never made something that made marks for me, so this assignment was very different from anything that I have done before. As an artist I make a lot of controlled marks and they are usually very detailed and not loose at all. Our drawing machine made marks similar to Jackson Pollock’s paintings with the splatters. When I use paint I have never splashed or thrown paint, but I really enjoyed the results that we got.