This was a student project by the group of Katie Grohnke, Zach Polen, and Kirsten Goodge for Galo Canizares' course ARCH 4420 in Spring 2019.
By viewing precedents like old sand drawing flash games, we set out and developed an ephemeral drawing machine.
Using fluid dynamics along with the addition of the parameter of time this machine aims to create a catalog of effects which range from those in a dynamic flowing form to those in a seemingly stagnant still form.
This gives us a seemingly approachable program which then subtlety becomes complex to both master and exploit.
We subverted the typical standard graphic user interface or gooey which we interact with everyday and created a physical tangible gooey for which parameters are accessed allowing for the canvas to be uninterrupted.
This helps the reading of the project while allowing user and viewer to have arrayed relationships with the machine.
Positioning this system as a combination of bespoke hardware and software incentivizes a bodied way to interact with computation that has its roots in early drawing machines like Sketchpad from Ivan Sutherland in the 60s.
Our software ends up bridging a seeming gap between drawing machines and animators.
Drawing machines assume the absence of time whereas the animators have the focused concentration and control on time.
Using the mathematics and parameters of a 2-d fluid dynamic system allows our software to incorporate a concept of time conducive to an ephemeral way of drawing without adding a kitsch timeline tool seen in animator software.
