Experimental Drawing Device (2019)

Two slide projectors with zoom lenses, projector stand, slide dissolve unit, modified record player, wood, mount board, front surface mirrors, hot glue, wood glue, gaffers tape, plastic slide containers, label tape, power cords, velcro, and latex paint. Dimensions variable.

I challenged my Graduate Seminar class to make new work that forced them to work with new materials, a new process, or in a new form while also eliminating one or two recurring elements in their work. I took the challenge too, and the students asked that I make something without using patterns and that wasn’t interactive for the viewer. Experimental Drawing Device resulted from this prompt.

Experimental Drawing Device projects custom lasercut slides from one or two projectors onto a mirror mounted to a modified record player. The projected shapes bounce off the mirror and hit the wall where they can then be drawn and painted by hand. The mirrored lens can be aligned either manually or by turning on and off the record player.

There are currently two lenses for Experimental Drawing Device: one with a flat mirror and one with a broken mirror. The device launched with 45 custom slides, which include a calibration dot, letters, words and phrases, numbers, a question mark, and a variety of circles, triangles, and squares.

Works made with Experimental Drawing Device:
Drawing #1: Portrait of the Experimental Drawing Device (2019)
Drawing #2: The Phantom Triangle (2019)
The Phantom Reveals Itself (2019)
Drawing #3: Patterns Never End (2019)