Drawing Machines: Machine Image

“Banana”

DESCRIBE THE OBJECT:

The color is what I am always interested in. No matter for pigments, the skin of a banana, or candle lights, I always focus on the color change. I’ve been trying to mix the pigments, or adjust the settings of the scanner to make it messier, more contrasting. Besides, I am also interested in light, which is mysterious and an independent source. It has never been to my notice that it should be the center of the artwork but more used as a background. In this scanning, I used the small electric candles and put them in a transparent jar. It changes the shape of light and the jar of light is my object.

“Three face man”

DESCRIBE YOUR MOTIVATION IN CREATING THIS OBJECT:

It is to observe the change of color in different situations. I put different color paints together to see the mix of color and add water, rice, or under light under the scanner with movements. I think the light has different kinds of textures under the scanner. It is also interesting to see how the color changes when adjusting the scanner settings, it could give you bright, grayish, or purely white color. Enjoying the randomness that comes with paint is the most important part of the process. I am only the medium of the process, but the paints themselves blend and show their different colors in the light, and eventually they form a painting with their uniqueness.

“The sun and the river”

DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS:

For paintwork, the most important thing is to find the right color. My main choices lie in yellow, red, and blue. Apply them randomly on the transparent box. Afterward, I adjust the scanner settings to maximize the contrast, so that the colors are highlighted and the background is ignored. After that, I will move the box freely, so that they have mobility and extension in the process of scanning.

For the light work, I moved the jar when the scanner started scanning and moved it along with the scanning line. It is to make sure the scanner will capture the movement and randomness of lights. The candle lights are contained together in the jar and moved around together. It is interesting to see the light show as a bright white color scanning and how it changes when I change the contrast. I enchanted the contrast and gamma into the highest level. Then I scrolled the jar around the scanner. I put a black background in the scanner to make it as dark as possible, so the light in the background will not be scanned. The light shows a strong, powerful color this way. The result gives me a random shape that looks like a painting. The one in the above looks like a mother looking down while holding her baby, like Ava Maria; the one in the below looks like a young woman’s side face. It is amazing to see the light’s fluidity in the scanning, just like water; and the texture it gives like the thick pigment. 

“Mother and daughter”

WHAT DOES THE PROJECT MEAN TO YOU?

It is an experiment for me to make my painting, but through scanning. The randomness in scanning is the most fun part. As I change my movement with the paint, light, the result will also change. It is meaningful to see the infinite possibilities of scanning art. 

Author: Shuran Chen