Assignment: Drawing/Software

Create a program which expands, augments, muddles, complicates, implicates, simplifies, questions, spoils, undermines, improves, or otherwise alters the concept or act of drawing.

Your program may be designed for one, two, or many simultaneous users — or none. It may assist, hinder, extract, protract, analyze, synthesize, etc. any part of the process and/or products of drawing.

You may use any hardware device and/or programming language you prefer, but your solution must involve the creation of custom software, executed by a machine.

This Assignment is due at the beginning of class on Thursday February 11.

christy-brown-my-left-foot Christy Brown, author of My Left Foot

Jean Tinguely, Machine a Dessiner

Some Considerations

Your project might be

A tool, toy, game, or instrument that offers a new way to draw
A system for analyzing a drawing or database of drawings
A machine that generates drawings according to some input (e.g. the weather), or by itself

Consider challenging a “basic assumption” about drawing, such as one of the following:

Drawing is done with the hand — one hand — usually, the dominant hand.
Drawings are flat, and are made on a flat surface.
A drawing is made by a single person.
Drawings are recordings that are meant to endure.
Drawings are distinct from text.

For example:

Who is the intended user of your software? The weekend following this assignment is Valentine’s Day. What if your software were created exclusively for one person — your Valentine?
How many people are required to operate your software? Drawing is often conceived as a solo activity. What if you design a drawing activity which requires two people to operate it?
What part of your body do you draw with? What if you could draw with a different part, like your nose, eyes, or feet?
Etcetera.

Fine Print (Deliverables)

Using whichever programming language is necessary or preferable, create a custom software application.
Create a blog post for your project. Categorize this with the category, DrawingSoftware.
Upload your code to Github, and include a link in your blog to your repository.
In your blog post, please write 150-200 words about your project.
In your blog post, include some scans or photos of any sketches, if you have them.
In your blog post, include some screenshots of your project.
You’ll be expected to demonstrate your software, live, on Thursday February 11th.
By Tuesday February 16th, you should also have completed documentation of your software in a brief video (1-2 minutes long), preferably with a narration. Upload this video to YouTube or Vimeo, and embed this video in the blog post. This video may be any combination of screengrabbed capture, recorded with a camera, etcetera. If there are good reasons why you cannot demonstrate your software live (e.g. it requires a roomful of special hardware), you should definitely have some sort of video to show on 2/11.

Hardware, Gizmos, Interfaces

The following software tools and devices are available to you. This is not an exclusive list! These are just some things you’re invited/welcome to work with.