Drawing Machines: nonhuman drawing apparatuses documents a select range of drawing machines used by Bartow+Metzgar and friends.  The drawings range in manner of production from the action of a moving vehicle to the action of bacteria.  

Nonhuman drawing machines are mechanical interfaces with the environment.  They free the human author from representational constraints and allow another type of drawing process to unfold.  The result is a temporal document that records a specific material interaction by a specific set of forces across time.  The habit-driven hand of the author is replaced by the hand of the facilitator, setting a drawing machine to task in a world of physical relations.  The nonhuman drawing depicts time as event and is borne out of an experimental engagement with the world.  The drawing above was produced by a hat drawing machine worn by a member of spurse in the city of Montreal, QC Canada. 

Bartow+Metzgar can be contacted at stratimentation@gmail.com.

Example of a hat drawing machine, worn on head as a hat (painted with a camouflage motif).  The drawing mechanism is in the platform of the hat.  Headrest cushions are placed within the interior portion of the hat for a snug fit.

Hat drawing machine, side view

Hat drawing machine, detail of drawing platform

Hat drawing machine used as a car drawing machine, placed in passenger seat and draws while the car is in motion.

Detail of car drawing (see image above)

Car drawing, 3 months of travel time (second iteration)

Car drawing, 3 months of travel time (first iteration)

Car drawing, 2 months of travel time

Car drawing, 1 month of travel time

Car drawing, 1 month of travel time

Car drawing, 1 year of travel time

Car drawing

Car drawing

Large car drawing – created with two different sized drawing carriages.

Small car drawing used for translation as a drawing directive (nonhuman process to human process), State 1.

Drawing translated through a qualitative “reading” of bleed clusters, i.e., where the pen remained static between episodes of movement.  The clusters are identified and recorded for further translation, State 2.

Bleed clusters superimposed with a graticule configuration to determine directives for an observational drawing exercise, State 3.  The graticule configuration (see graticule in use below) was developed from another car drawing (larger) and translated into a “vectoral organization”.

Graticule drawing.  Created by looking through areas of the graticule that are marked by a bleed cluster and drawing what is observed.  In the drawing above:  a drawing of the ground surface (grass) - darker values, middle values, or lighter values are singled out (determined by another directive) and drawn in the corresponding spaces, State 4.

Graticule in use during observational drawing exercise.

Graticule drawing translated into distinct groupings of stratified marks that are then translated into a simplified geometry of spatial distribution.  The geometry is used to produce one specific shape and its longest diagonal (signified by the letter “a” in the image above) measured and translated into a time element for video editing, State 5.

Shippable drawing machine – loaded with paper and pen and shipped from address to address via FedEx, UPS, etc.  Shippable drawing machine built by Brian DeRosia.

Shippable drawing machine opened after transport (opened by Richard Metzgar).

Large car drawing machine, built by Brian DeRosia

Small car drawing machine, built by Brian DeRosia

Small car drawing machine, Detail

Globe drawing machine, transportable.  Built by Brian DeRosia

Ship drawing machine (ink dripping apparatus), attached to side of ship and activated by motion of water.  Each inkwell (color) is associated with a specific degree of angle made by the rocking motion of the vessel.  Ship drawing machine built by Stan Pipkin of spurse for the project The complete human and nonhuman psychogeography of the coasts of Maine by spurse.

Detail of ship drawing machine-drawing

Other types of ship drawing machines: roller carriage mechanism and pendulum mechanism.  These machines were also part of The complete human and non-human psychogeography of the coasts of Maine.

Detail of roller carriage in ship drawing machine (see image above)

Airplane drawing – made by movement of the hand during take-off (or landing) of an airplane.  The hand holds the pen in one position on a paper pad while the airplane is landing.  This type of drawing could be said to involve a human/nonhuman entanglement where the expressive capacity of the hand is intensified by the machinic forces involved with the landing procedure of a plane in flight.

Airplane drawing, take-off, 10-15-10

Airplane drawing, landing, 10-15-10

Airplane drawing, landing, 5-23-10

Airplane drawing, take-off, 7-22-10

Airplane drawing, landing, 7-22-10

Airplane drawing, take-off, 5-23-10

Airplane drawing, landing and take-off, 2-05-08.

Airplane drawing, landing, 12-04-06.

Airplane drawing, landing, 12-04-06

Car drawing – made by movement of hand during travel in a car, another human/nonhuman entanglement.  Drawing made by Iain Kerr.

Tree drawings.  Drawing stations set up with Hemlock trees for B+M’s project Colloquiseum in Baltimore, MD.

Tree drawing, Detail of drawing surface

Tree drawing, Hemlock, Baltimore, MD

Tree drawing, Hemlock, Baltimore, MD

A portable tree drawing stand (used for the two drawings below)

Tree drawing, Hemlock, Lincoln, MA

Tree drawing, unidentified tree, Palatka, FL

Microbial Drawing – produced by microbial activity in soil, Lincoln, MA.  A vellum sheet (8-1/2″ x 11″ ) is placed between two pieces of Plexi-glass and buried 12″ in the ground for a set period of time (drawing above – 323 days).

Microbial Drawing, Lincoln, MA, 35 days

Microbial drawing – produced by decomposition of organic matter, Baltimore, MD.  Vellum sheet (8-1/2″ x 11″) and organic material sandwiched between two sheets of Plexi-glass over a set period of time.

Microbial drawing, Baltimore, MD

Microbial drawing, Baltimore, MD

More to come soon…