(3) Machine-Made [Exploration]

Machine-Made

(Mechanical) Machines Selected : [ Wind-up Train | Wind-up Robot | Typewriter | Alarm Clock ]

(Electronic) Machines Selected : [ Macbook Pro | Computer Mouse | EPSON Scanner | HP Printer ]


Medium #1 (Charcoal + Oil)

Initially I wanted to use crayons for the medium, This is mostly because I wanted to utilise the usage of the microwave oven as a tool to create the pattern. However, my outcome was far from satisfaction. Moreover, the use of colours for the crayon did not resonate with me. I have since scrapped the usage of microwave oven for my pattern.

I decide to look back at the concept as a whole. I realised that the utility of mechanical and electronic machines can be classified according a timeline of each inventions. As I began to look back, I traced back the inventions to the period of Industrial Revolution. Naturally, I thought about ‘coal-carrying’ steam trains and inventions of manufacturing greased-up robotic machines. 

Thus, I chose charcoal and oil to be one of my mediums.


Exploration #1 (Wind-up toys)

I looked at Youtube to see how I can utilise charcoal and oil to be my medium.

Trying out:

Following the Youtube tutorial, I crushed charcoal and mixed danish oil in slowly until I got a pretty good consistency. (Initially I added linseed oil, which turned out to be too thick and resulted in a clump of wasted charcoal)

Testing:

Making use of the wind-up mechanism, I used a wind-up train and a wind-up robot to create the first series of pattern.

The results were fairly acceptable. The generated patterns are as follows:


Exploration #2 (Keyboard and Mouse )

Whilst creating the first composition, my hands were stained with charcoal and oil. I decided to utilise the scenario and placed a tracing paper on my Macbook keyboard and Mouse. Therefore while using the Macbook, I was creating more patterns.

Capturing the usage of keyboard

Results were as follow:

An interesting observation is that I made use of the backspace button a lot. Anyway the resulted motif may be difficult to incorporate into the pattern.

Status: Archived 


Medium #2 (Typewriter | Macbook Pro)

I am intrigued with the parallels between Morse Code and Binary Code. The mechanical language of the morse code versus the digital language of the binary code. I decided to invert the creation of both languages with the opposite tool.

Thus, I made use of the mechanical typewriter to create the binary code of the word “beep” and I used the laptop to create the morse code of the word “click”. 

First, I translated both morse code and binary code through the use of generator.


Testing:

Results were as follow:


(More motifs exploration in the next post)

To be continued.

(2) Machine-Made [Moodboard]

Initial concept, “beep_”

An exploration of a symphony created through human interactions with electronics. such is to utilise the qualities of the auditive qualities of the “beeps” and “clicks” that comes with a button press, alarm or an indication. My plan was to make use of the very electronic devices to create patterns. However, there are a lot of limitations involving this direction as the auditive feature of electronic devices are not easy to be translated into patterns.

Rethinking concept.

Deciding to take a step back and reconsider my concept, I did a mind-map to help me conceptualise.

I focused on the aspects of capturing the snippets of “clicks and beeps” of such machines; at the same time retaining the ideals of creating patterns through the usage of the machines.

Working on both the analogue and digital mediums, I segregated the machines into “Mechanical” Clicks and “Electronic” Beeps and worked upon finding the necessary machines to create my pattern.


New concept,”Machine-Made”

An exploration of creating a symphony of patterns generated from the auditive feedbacks through the act of utilising the machines. Using a mixture of analogue and digital medium to create pattern, selected machines are based upon its ability to generate mechanical or electronic feedbacks.

“beeps and clicks”

Onomatopoeia words that are “purely man-made” as nothing in nature can imitate the sounds created from machines. Inducted into the Oxford dictionary in 1929.

Parallels observed: Typewriter and Macbook Pro

”morse code and binary code”

Morse code is a language created from machines through sound signals.

Parallels observed: Morse code and Binary code


Reference Artists

1. Nathier Fernandez in collaboration with Daniel Castano [Drawing (Conversations)]

http://www.nathier.com/drawing-machine-1/

2. Emon Toufanian [Collage]

https://www.emontoufanian.com/collage


Construction Moodboard


To be continued.