TwoLovers Robotic/Typographic Installation
I created this collaborative installation as testament to the ultimate impossibility of technology to have a soul and express emotion. Installed in Whittier College’s Greenleaf Gallery in Whittier, CA in 2015, this piece consists of two semi-autonomous drawing machines programmed to write love letters to each other on a giant sheet of paper, (one with red, the other with black). Over the course of the 30-day exhibition, layer upon layer of words and letters obfuscate each other, adding to the inability for them to effectively communicate, (but they keep trying).
Video documentation (above)
Full view of installation in the gallery space (above)
The text they “write” is pulled from a small database, including sentences like, “i am lost”, “i am here”, “where are you” and “i need you”. The font is a very geometric sans serif and it only uses minuscules (lowercase letters).
I began building drawing machines (drawBots) in 2013 to explore relationships between robotic mechanisms and typography. The machines installed in this gallery are my latest creation and consist of a Sparkfun RedBoard (Arduino UNO clone) and DF Robot Motor Shield as the controller, a digital compass to keep them oriented to a typographic baseline, two encoded DC Motors and Polulu wheels for propulsion, six rechargeable AA batteries and a 6V voltage regulator to provide consistent voltage to the motors, three Sharp Infrared sensors to avoid colliding into walls (and each other), on/off switch, small ball castors, and a mini servo motor atop a repurposed plastic sheath to lift and lower a Pilot Jumbo maker. All these components are mounted to ann 1/8-inch acrylic chassis that I designed and laser cut. This is an open source project, contact me if you want specifics.
Exhibition was in collaboration with Troy Richards.
© Ashley John Pigford, All rights reserved.