Electromechanical Drawing Machines
Jack Tait

Summary

Jack Tait discusses his lifelong practice of building electromechanical drawing machines, presenting examples of his work and explaining how simple mechanical instructions can generate complex, unpredictable images. He reflects on his artistic development, from early sine-wave and turntable machines to recent explorations of randomness, chaos, and what he calls the persistence of coherence. Tait describes how he programmes these analog devices using sequences of timed motor pulses, forward-and-reverse controls, and mechanical randomizers such as a six-outlet dice-throwing mechanism, while taking advantage of the natural speed variation in DC motors to introduce quasi-randomness. He shows how recent machines, including the XCP linear-cam pen-rotation device, use turntable bases, cam mechanisms, flow pens, and chisel nibs to vary line thickness and produce calligraphic or topographic effects. Colour, he suggests, draws viewers in so they notice subtleties they might otherwise miss. Tait also considers questions of authorship, happily accepting that other artists using his machines create works bearing their own imprint, and shares his ambition for a second generation of users to continue producing new Taitographs at the Leicester R10 studio.

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