Analogue Drawing Machines
Jack Tait and Sean Clark
Summary
In this Computer Arts Society talk, artist Jack Tait and curator Sean Clark discuss Tait’s analogue drawing machines in a conversational format alongside an exhibition at Phoenix. Clark leads Tait through his motivations, and Tait begins by thanking supporters—including the Computer Arts Society and the Science Museum—who helped publish, exhibit and collect his work, noting the importance of advocates in promoting art. He recounts how his interest started in the 1950s while serving in the RAF, where radar research involving oscilloscope image conversion inspired his later light-based work. In 1960, after seeing a harmonograph demonstration at art college, he builds his first machine from Meccano, replacing pendulums with programmable cranks and pulleys to create precise yet organic line growth. He explains that the machines are deterministic—governed by physical ratios and Cartesian coordinates—but tiny starting differences ensure every drawing is unique, echoing Alan Turing’s observations on generative systems. In the 1970s, Tait applies engineering skills to more accurate light-drawing machines and pays homage to fellow pioneer Desmond Paul Henry by reverse-engineering Henry’s wartime analogue-computer-based spherograph. Throughout, Tait and Clark explore the philosophy of delegating artistic control to a machine, embracing unexpected outcomes and asking whether machine-made marks qualify as art.
This AI summary was generated by kimi-k2.7-code (13th August 2026).