Artist Hacks Turntables to Create Giant Spirograph Drawings (Video)
For his art project Drawing Apparatus, Robert Howsare hacked together a pair of turntables to sketch intriguing geometric patterns. The printmaking MFA student at Ohio University built the device for less than $50, and the result are drawings that resemble old Spirograph images. Howsare said the turntables came from two separate yard sales. With variable [...]
For his art project Drawing Apparatus, Robert Howsare hacked together a pair of turntables to sketch intriguing geometric patterns.
The printmaking MFA student at Ohio University built the device for less than $50, and the result are drawings that resemble old Spirograph images. Howsare said the turntables came from two separate yard sales. With variable pitch control, he was able to change the size and shape of the figures. The video below has the left turntable playing at 33 rpm while the right one moves at about 45 rpm, Wired reports.
As for the other components? A few slats of wood, binding screws, machine screws, old records, and a Sharpie mounted on a clothespin. Howsare, a former DJ, uses the vinyl records to adjust the height of the wooden arms as they move. "I think they're sound effects records," he says of the records in the video, though what's on the vinyl records doesn't really matter. The marker gliding around the paper produces its own subtle sound. "I really like the sound of the movement of the pen...there's something kind of hypnotic and sensual about it, just going back and forth," Howsare said.
Mesmerizing indeed. Watch the video below to see the record players work in tandem.