if we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
albert einstein

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digital to analog by the plotter

My affection to the plotting device goes back to the 1980s, when I – still a child- discovered the pen plotter of my father. I think now that this experience was the key for my love to graphic design. A pen writing and drawing on a paper, controlled by a computer (hp 85 in my case). The finesse of  a laser printer was still unknown to me, and I think it would not have mattered. Nothing compares to the sound, the hectic activity and analog output of a plotter. True vector graphics!

This first, so called flatbed plotter, had the charme of a x-y plotting arm, moving in both directions. And the paper was kept in place by electrostatics. What a genius.  Later to now, I used and still use a newer hp carousel plotter, the color pro, still with pens, quite hackable and usable with a modern operating system (macintosh in my case).

There are a lot of choices. Output is not as easy as with a laser printer. New graphic or programming software cannot output directly to this machine but needs some treatment. It is more a print maker algorithm than an instant experience, but never mind.

Actually we try to go back to plotter art, not so common anymore but in combination of modern programming languages (processing etc) the possibilities are very large-spectrum.

Hopefully we will have a few projects to be published in 2012 – listen to the noise!