This will go on your permanent record

This will go on your permanent record

Years ago the corporate design studio I worked in had a massive, expensive vertical plotter that dominated the room. It sounded like a machine gun when it ran, and to me—educated as the last generation of pre-CAD, hand-drafting ID students—it was mesmerizing, if disturbingly robotic, to watch.

Robert Howsare has created a machine that's considerably cheaper—the bulk of it is two yard-sale turntables, some pieces of wood, and a clothespin holding a Sharpie—that's even more mesmerizing to see in action, as it draws swooping, organic lines. Howsare, a graduate student on Ohio, connected self-made wooden arms to the same spot on two different records, set one at 33 and the other at 45, and let 'er rip. Check it out:

What's scary is that it seems like it's actually drawing something with some kind of plan.

Howsare is currently going for an MFA in Printmaking at Ohio University. I kinda wish he was studying ID instead, as I'd love to see him make, in 3D, whatever it is the record players are trying to draw.

Wired has a phone interview with the man here.

See also:
» Drawingmachine by Eske Rex
» Matthew W. Moore × Aaron Panone - CNC drawing machine