KIKAIMA is an evolving art project in which I investigate chance, reproduction and visual language through programming and physical drawing.
An open archive of questions, tests and reflections.
One of the questions that arose while developing KIKAIMA X SUMI was whether I could identify and colour the enclosed regions of a composition. I wanted to work not only with lines, but also with surfaces and areas of colour. That raised a problem I hadn't given much thought to until then: what happens to negative space?
READ ↗When I finished building the KIKAIMA robot, I needed to see how it actually worked on paper. Until then, calibration tests consisted of small Arduino programs drawing lines at different pressures, squares, circles or strokes in which pressure increased and decreased progressively.
READ ↗KIKAIMA's first drawing test was a complete failure. After building the robot and developing the software required to interpret images, I decided to try it with a poster by an illustrator. The image had been converted correctly into a simplified line drawing, with a result I liked.
READ ↗These unforeseen events give a work some of its identity and make it unique and unrepeatable.
KIKAIMAI am particularly interested in investigating how a visual language is constructed and what makes a particular combination of elements aesthetically compelling.
X SUMII don't want to define a fixed aesthetic in advance.
KIKAIMAI'd like to compare repeated executions of the same image, as with an edition of prints, and see what differences the process introduces.
X MICHITo me, the process matters as much as the works that may come out of it.
KIKAIMAA single composition may preserve its structure while displaying material differences with each execution.
X SUMIWith X MICHI, I'm not trying to make an automatic copy of a photograph, but to develop a personal way of interpreting it and giving it physical form.
X MICHII'm as interested in building the tool as I am in understanding what it might be capable of and discovering the questions that arise along the way.
KIKAIMAI want to explore what remains of the source image, what changes in translation and what part of the result comes from the relationship between software, machine and materials.
X MICHI