In preparation for the exhibition walks and traces … Off the Map, I accepted the very wonderful Sibylle Ettengruber’s invitation to come and work at the Atelierhaus Salzamt here in Linz.
I have built a second drawing machine (first one documented here) because the idea of the relationship between the GPS as a drawing machine and these sort of aleatoric, body-bound, Victorian-inspired eccentric movement sensors continues to fascinate me.
I keep on thinking of the term ‘expanded drawing’ – a sort of tribute to expanded cinema. I’ll have to see how that weathers – I suspect that there are other terms for different sorts of drawing, as I’m sure that drawing is something that people have thought about a lot. There is the whole debate about the spectrum of drawing from representation to mark-making record of a gesture. However, what distinguishes these machine-made drawings (I am including GPS in this) is that like cinema, they result of some mechanical mediation and I’m interested to find out if there is any writing about this aspect.
I had to steel myself to make the drawings as I felt very conspicuous. Unlike the first drawing machine, this one straps to the front of the body. In fact the first ones I made in the evening after a beer, but I had some nice exchanges with curious people, one man who was really engaged and another, drunken one who observed that “Es ist immer Schamhaar” (It’s always pubic hair). He’s got a point. Won’t be putting that in the exhibition notes though.