Ray Ward in residence at C&CRS
An extract from Ray's description of his residency during the Summer of 2002 (taken from: Candy, L. and Edmonds, E., The COSTART Exhibition at C&C2002. in Creativity & Cognition 2002. Loughborough, UK, 2002. LUSAD Publications, p11-22.)
An increasing interest in drawing and performance led me to the idea of a drawing machine. There seem to be a lot of things of that name around most of which make drawings often where a computer or mechanical device creates the drawing with little input from the user. If the user has any interaction it is very dependent on the device what results occur. Watching sparklers being used on Bonfire Night like pencils which created momentary drawings where the performance and movement of the user was integral to the overall effect, I wondered if it would be possible to capture the drawing for an audience as it was made by the performer. Rather than a device that created drawings, I was thinking more of an instrument that allowed creativity and skill allowing for scripted and improvised work. The firework sparkler proved to be a good model for what I wanted to do in that it is portable and simple to use allowing the user to concentrate on the making of an artwork. Trying to imagine what could be achieved I started working on simple animations which used a variety of drawing methods....
An increasing interest in drawing and performance led me to the idea of a drawing machine. There seem to be a lot of things of that name around most of which make drawings often where a computer or mechanical device creates the drawing with little input from the user. If the user has any interaction it is very dependent on the device what results occur. Watching sparklers being used on Bonfire Night like pencils which created momentary drawings where the performance and movement of the user was integral to the overall effect, I wondered if it would be possible to capture the drawing for an audience as it was made by the performer. Rather than a device that created drawings, I was thinking more of an instrument that allowed creativity and skill allowing for scripted and improvised work. The firework sparkler proved to be a good model for what I wanted to do in that it is portable and simple to use allowing the user to concentrate on the making of an artwork. Trying to imagine what could be achieved I started working on simple animations which used a variety of drawing methods....
