In my most recent newsletter, I wrote a bit about our maker studio space, Forge & Craft.
There’s a lot more to say about the reasons for starting the space, how I’ve approached getting myself organised (or, um, not…), and what I’m working on. Next month is the winter edition of this year’s Wimbledon Art Fair, so right now, I’m deep into working on some pieces for display and sale there.
Since building a Brachiograph plotter back in April, I’ve been fascinated by mechanical creation of art, and bought an AxiDraw SE/A4 machine to scratch the itch to do something more meaningful. Strong recommendation towards the AxiDraw, and Evil Mad Scientist Labs who manufacture and support it – it’s an outstanding machine, user-upgradable (I added the coreless servo upgrade), and the support from the company and the community around the machines and software are fantastic. Expensive, but extremely well-made and supported.
In preparation for the show, I’ve been getting interested in the history of computer art going back to the 1960s and 1970s, and specifically the work of Georg Nees, one of the pioneers in this space. It has been a nice mix of my background as an historian; looking at generating pieces using code; and also, experimenting with how the materials interact.
Here are a few glimpses of some of the works in progress.
The Wimbledon Art Fair is a free event, with over 150 different artists in their open, working studio spaces – if you’re able to pop in between November 16th to November 19th, it would be a delight to see you.
I’ll just leave this here, and get back to getting ready for the event!
