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Entertainment

Two Turntables Are A Drawing Machine

That old pair of Technics you’ve got lying around could be put to good use.

Forget two turntables and a microphone—focus instead on two turntables and some wooden arms. In Drawing Apparatus Robert Howsare turns a pair of turntables into an automated drawing machine, swapping rotating vinyl for two wooden arms that draw geometric patterns as the turntables spin around.

Varying the speed or shortening the wooden arms leads to different patterns being created, with Howsare seeing the resulting images as markers of temporality rather than simply drawings. As he explains:

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The revolutions of the records create drawings that serve as a markers of temporality. The drawings also speak to the idea of the editionable print through their ability to be replicated using domestic materials.

The simple device follows in the traditions of automated drawing machines pioneered by computer artist Desmond Paul Henry and continued by many others. And just like watching a record spinning around can be pretty hypnotic, so is watching the mechanics of this device at work. Don't think it takes requests though.

[via MAKE]

@stewart23rd