Electronics

Music drives mechanical abstract art mayhem

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The electropollock by Dmitry Morozov
Dmitry Morozov
The electropollock is built around an old printer mechanism
Dmitry Morozov
An algorithm registers peaks in sound frequency and amplitude and then translates it into brush stroke activity
Dmitry Morozov
The electropollock was designed as an homage to American expressionist painter Jackson Pollock
Dmitry Morozov
The electropollock by Dmitry Morozov
Dmitry Morozov
The music-influenced abstracts are the result of the actions of a paint brush that hangs from an arm that extends out above the paper and a special fan for sprayed patterns
Dmitry Morozov
View gallery - 5 images

Dmitry Morozov, the Moscow-based media artist behind the pyrite sun sound generator we featured last year, has just released video footage of his latest creation. The electropollock has been designed as an homage to American expressionist painter Jackson Pollock, famous for his energetic drip painting works. Morozov's electromechanical creation employs a similar method to get paint onto the rolling "canvas," but the end result is determined by music fed into the system.

The electropollock is built around an old printer mechanism that's been augmented with solenoid valves and electric motors. At the heart of the machine is an Arduino Uno electronics project board that runs a special algorithm. The algorithm registers peaks in sound frequency and amplitude and then translates them into brush stroke activity, the speed at which the paper moves through the machine and the rate that the paint is supplied to the system.

The music-influenced abstracts are the result of the actions of a paint brush that hangs from an arm that extends out above the paper and a special fan for sprayed patterns
Dmitry Morozov

Paint or ink is fed into a drip nozzle attached to a moving "print head" and the music-influenced abstracts are the result of the actions of a paint brush that hangs from an arm that extends out above the paper and a special fan for sprayed patterns. A speaker rises from the back of the unit to output the music that's inspiring the seemingly random brush work.

You can see the machine getting into a Marilyn Manson groove in the video below.

Source: Dmitry Morozov

View gallery - 5 images
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2 comments
Tom Lee Mullins
It is not my kind of art.
Brad Wood
This was done to hilarious effect in an old movie, What a Way to Go, with Shirley MacLaine and a number of other stars.