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HHM and NTT + horizontal platforms and light drawing rig.
Machine 2 machines
During fifty years I have designed and built more than fifty drawing machines and timer/programmers, not including light pens. Many digital images were made on a 1969 Hewlett Packhard calculator/plotter until it ceased to function. Not all machines still exist, as this number includes various stages of development and machines which were dismantled.
The collection is in three categories; early machines including rejects, the Science Museum set as presented for my PhD and on this page most recent machines.
A recent modification has been to add a horizontal platform to the HHM and NTT machines whilst other machines undergo regular updates to conform to the latest preoccupation with 'near chaos' research.
Hommage to Henry machine with horizontal platform.
NTT (new turntale) machine with horizontal platform
Current light rig with NSEW Mk X cam and
Randomiser programmer.
The Hommage to Henry machine now has an horizontal platform designed as an alternative part to the elliptical table. This has meant a redesign of the previous version, making the X:Y unit separate from the elliptical table and in addition adding a sun and planet drive to the Y axis . Before this was only present on the X axis. This modification increases the variety of drawings. The horizontal platforms change the character of the drawing .
The NTT was designed and built as an alternative to the HHM machine specifically to investigate 'near chaos' images. It has its own horizontal platform as the HHM draws much larger images. The X and Y axes are both sun and planet driven but the linkages moving the pen significantly alter the character of the fundamental drawing shapes.
Three light pens are shown. The camera is
a Canon 5D Mk ll with a 35mm or 24 mm lens
and the images are shot at 200 ISO at f16
with exposures uo to three minutes. The new
rig allows rcording to be done in daylight
with the rig covered by a dark cloth.
The current light rig allows different machines to be used to move a variety of light pens. The frame can be covered by a dark cloth and images made in daylight. The machine used here is an NSEW cam driven unit controlled by a Randomiser programmer before it had a forward reverse unit added.
These are the two current programmers used to control all NSEW machines. Ranomiser, with forward/reverse box on the left and Sequential Timer on the right. The Randomiser was designed to facilitate randomness and chaos and is able to output six positions at random as in a dice. It has been very successful in extending the range of drawings.
Light pens and shutter can be switched on independently or programmed.
CLICK ON THE MACHINE IMAGES TO SEE THE DRAWINGS
Three light pen units with shutter, varaible size and colour spot and rotating colour slit respectively
Ranomiser coupled with a forward reverse unit which extends the range of output instructions
Sequential Timer with varaible combinations of different timed outputs. Capable of a very large number of programme sequences approaching a level of quasi randomness.