Based on research by Dan Reznik at the University of California, and inspired by a remark by Ed Stastny, Sketching Device #1 sends low-frequency vibrations through a sheet of paper to guide objects– such as pens– in any direction, without direct contact. The principle is similar to the way you scoot yourself around in a rolling office chair without touching the floor: jerk back quickly to make the chair move forward, and relax more slowly to get centered again without pulling the chair back. Sketching Device #1 does this about thirty times per second– too fast too see– and the pen in its plastic “boat” appears to float around the page by itself. In this primitive implementation, the process is not very reliable or predictable, and that is what makes the resulting sketches interesting.

Art Meets Science, May 18, 2006

See all the other installations at the Robotix’s site

I’m fascinated by antique scientific instruments. Sometimes that fascination goes too far, and I’m compelled to eviscerate them. Sensitive Research is part of a series of pieces combining natural materials with technological artifacts.

The preserved lemon inside Sensitive Research spins and strobes in response to various environmental factors, including network activity (if available), but, most importantly, the settings of the two front-panel knobs, which are quite pleasant to tweak.

Sensitive Research is now in the collection of Judith Zissman.

At first, they put it inside a glass box– missing the point of an interactive piece. So I sneaked the box off in order to let people tweak the knobs. By the end of the exhibit, both knobs were broken.

The wind-up mermaid box was created for the 2003 Mermaid Show. Reminiscent of an old penny-arcade peep show, the mermaid box has a peephole on top through which a shining mermaid can be seen only when the box is wound up with its big brass key.

Most entries fell into the category that Mr. Galanter called ”punk-rock robotics,” emphasizing cheap components and a playful do-it-yourself approach.

Ranjit Bhatnagar said he had torn apart his stereo speakers to build Sketching Device No. 1, which used patterns of vibration to move pens across a sheet of paper. David Webber’s AO2000, which visitors picked as their favorite, made chaotic music with a blender, an adding machine, two laptop computers, an old television and some coffee cans, among other things. Symet Studio, by Stefan Prosky, a family of simple solar-powered robots that left trails of dots as they hopped around, was voted best of show by the robot-builders.

sketching device #1 and toy dogs on Vimeo