My previous drawing robots have a very simple mechansim for holding markers—either a series of holes on Minus E or a tube on Scribbot. There was also no lifting mechanism, as my robots’ scribbly drawing style did not require it. This year, inspired by the pen-holding mechansim on pen plotters, I decided to add a similar mechansim to my drawing robot.

In my past code sketches, I have created patterns in various forms. Most of the time, the patterns were formed simply by repeating the same visual. In a recent class, Tega gave us a systematic overview of different approaches to make patterns. It was mind blowing to see how extensively people have studied patterns. In particular, I was very much drawn into Truchet tiles.

In the past three years, as a part of my ongoing research, I have created well over 1000 computational sketches, in the forms of still images, short animations, and interactive visuals. I have always wanted to experiment more with analog mediums as I am curious about how visuals that are usually shown on digital screens will render on analog mediums. This fall, I am taking Tega Brain’s Print and Code at NYU’s Integrated Design & Media program, where I learned techniques of risograph printing. I decided to turn three videos of my past sketches, each representing a distinct style of my work, into risograph animations.

Back in 2017, I built my first mobile drawing robot for my undergraduate capstone at NYU Shanghai. Some of my design choices at the time were constrained by the resources and timeline. Now that I am back in school, pursing my master’s degree, I wanted to redesign the robot. My main goal was to make the robot smaller so it becomes more portable. I also thought this would be a nice challenge to practice my CAD skills and deepen my understanding of the electronics.

Inspired by 18th-century automatons such as the writer and the draughtsman by Jaquet-Droz, I wanted to create my own drawing automatons. In particular, I am hoping to build more accessible drawing automatons with a focus on enhanced programmability. As a first step, I decided to design a mechansim for drawing scribbly lines.

This week, I have been experimenting with laser engraving. I wanted to continue incorporating computational thinking into my process, so the first thing I thought of was to create a p5.js sketch for the laser engraver. Although raster files can be used for etching, I think it would be more interesting to generate a vector path for the laser engraver.

A series of experimental digital paintings that deconstruct images of myself into small scribbles.