Textual Dimensions

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the arts funding and advisory body. Aspects of this work were developed at reSkin, an ANAT Emerging Technology Lab presented in association with ANU and CraftAustralia.

The intention behind this work is to write two texts simultaneously using all four limbs. This intention reflects the fact that while six drawings are being produced only two of those drawings can be under my direct control at any one time. And of course its not any two. It could be the drawings created by my right arm and leg, and left arm and leg respectively. Or I might choose to focus on the creation of the drawings that are controlled by one arm and the opposite leg. The other combination is using the arms to control one drawing while the legs control another.

As I control one of these possible combinations, four other drawings are being produced out of the same movements that are creating the drawings that are directly under my control. As you can probably guess from the drawings created here this mechanism is still in a prototypical phase. However as I refine the mechanism, and gain greater control over it, I will reach the point of being able to write two texts with the markers that I am controlling directly as I simultaneously produce four other texts through various combinations of the movements that are aimed at the texts that I am focusing on.

The four secondary texts will be a series of half letters that take the x coordinates needed to write one letter and combine them with the y coordinates needed to write another in order to create a hybrid letter. However at this very early stage of the project there is a lack of precision in both the mechanism itself and in my control of it. The construction that holds the pens doesnt have the kind of stability that would allow for a precise correspondence between my movements and the marks that appear on the page while there are also improvements that I can make in both the type of motors and the way that I control them here. These improvements would involve working out the most suitable torque profile for the motors while also thinking about different ways of translating bodily movements into motor control signals. Another possible improvement to this mechanism would involve exchanging the bouncy and imprecise model tank tracks, that I am using here as the belts that connect the markers to the motors, for more rigid timing belts.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Performance
• Contemporary Art