My old but upgraded to wireless Roland pen plotter is a great companion in art exploration. It takes me down a creative software development rabbit hole where everything becomes tangible. It takes me beyond the screen and still it feels interactive. The process here is very important and every step is automatically published by a twitter-bot much like I used to screenshot every step of the output in earlier creative coding days to document the creative explorations. Given the time it takes to make a plot I’m using this twitter feed to reflect, look back and even branch my development of graphics much like you would do in software engineering using a versioning system (git in my case).
Using python as the main language I can integrate parametric 3D modelling (blender) with plotting (chiplotle) using libraries like SVGpathtools and intermediate software like inkscape all in an integrated, interactive way allowing for a quick iterative creative process.
The explorations take me in a lot of different directions, but the aim is to find a graphical language that defines me, supported by technology I shaped on my on from an open source base to which I try to contribute in return. It has been used in finished installations, record covers, Music Video and live visual performances (CoverCover, Triangle Yur release, Cuts Of The Hypercube show, Leeds Video Clip )
If you’re aware of any old HPGL-plotters gathering dust… I might be interested…
