HO: A Digital Frottage
Artist(s):
Title:
- A Digital Frottage
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 1997
Medium:
- Rubbing over a digitally produced wood block: graphite on handmade Japanese paper
Size:
- 7.75" x 7.75"
Category:
Artist Statement:
Moving from digital output to traditional art media and permanent, pleasing output raises several issues. In this piece, a homemade, three-axis milling machine and a plotter were used to generate the third depth. With a cone-shaped bit, the depth was translated into line width, then a plane was defined, covering a fractal line, and attached to a depth/width pattern, which is repeated along its course.
This was all done in a few lines of code. Fractals can be beautiful, yet simple.
The resulting coordinates, translated into step-motor input, direct the bit into the maple in one single path from start to end – an elegant process, adapted to the tools at hand. The resulting carved woodblock can be the source of many pleasing experiments.
This piece is but one of many possibilities: a frottage or rubbing, as done by petrographs, archeologists, Chinese scholars, and artists. Max Ernst in particular was fond of the medium: “Histoires Naturelles.” The graphite lead rubbed on the sheet laid over the block marks only where wood was not removed.
