Pendulum-Driven Machine Creates Giant Spirograph Graphics

He?s never heard of Spirograph, but Swedish artist Eske Rex has created a huge drawing machine that creates similar results.

With nothing but a couple of pendulums, a seemingly simple wooden construction and a range of colored biros, Rex?s Drawingmachine creates larger-than-life graphic images that, like snowflakes, are all unique.

Inspired by the harmonograph, a machine invented during the mid-19th century, Rex developed his own version of the machine in order, he tells Wired.co.uk, to create ?a never-ending experiment where it is impossible to produce two identical drawings.?

With a background in carpentry, Rex custom-designed and built the Drawingmachine himself after a period of trial and error, which included the creation of a smaller Drawingmachine a few years ago. This version is constructed from wood, metal, vinyl and concrete and occupies a floor space of 380 square feet. With two 9-foot-high pendulum towers supporting pendulums of up to 165 pounds, images as large as 9 feet by 9 feet can be produced.

Explaining his motivations behind the project, Rex says: ?I am interested in the machine as a sculpture in space, a constantly changing mobile. In addition to this, the universe within the drawings is interesting by virtue of their spatial, textural, temporal qualities.?

As a result, the Drawingmachine is a rather uncontrollable beast. ?It?s an instrument with which you can draw very precise spiral geometry by only using gravity,? he says. ?Getting to know the machine, using it as a tool to improvise and create specific visual expression takes a lot of practice and experimentation as any other tool or instrument.?

Check out the video of Rex?s Drawingmachine in action, above, and see Wired UK?s gallery of Drawingmachine images.

Source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/04/drawingmachine/

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