Cooperative Drawing Machine

During my Design Methods class, I was prompted to create a novel drawing machine. I decided to team up with my friend Neill Shikada, who is a fellow creative technologist.

The result is our drawing machine that physicalizes a social interaction. The resulting painting tells a story of the cooperation between the two participants!

Two people stand on opposite sides of the machine and cooperate to paint a picture. It's harder than it looks! Each stroke of the resulting painting is a physicalized mark that represents this social interaction.

The elevation of the brush is important to control. If both participants hold too tightly, then the brush hovers in the air and no marks are made. If they hold it too loose, then the brush falls and makes unwanted marks. Both participants must negotiate to hold the brush at the precise height that they need to paint in the way they intend.

This negotiation can be a metaphor for all sorts of social interaction. If both parties try to hold too tight or allow for too much slack in their contributions to a social situation, it is uncomfortable, and the result does not represent the intent of either party. Both parties must have a rapport to take and release control in cooperation with their conversation partner.

Bill of Materials

• Slab of wood to use as a base
• 4x 1in diameter 1ft long Wooden Dowels to use as the frame struts
• 4x 3/4in diameter 5in long Wooden Dowls to use as handles
• A brush (You can adjust the diameter of the handle in CAD)
• 20x Wood screws (I used some I had on hand, so if you can't figure it out, adjust the CAD to fit whatever you can get)
• 10mm long M3 screw and M3nut for fastening the brush
• Rope or Paracord, I used four lengths of 125cm 550 Paracord, but this varies based on the size of your board. Make sure the rope is long enough to allow the

I showed this drawing machine during the ATLAS EXPO 2023, and it was an absolute blast. So many talented people showing their superb creations.