Catalogue
of Making
Prototype 1 explores what happens when drawing is done through a mechanism instead of directly by hand. A joystick controls a servo-mounted pen, so every movement is translated, delayed and slightly resisted by the machine. The rig makes the mediation visible: the motor overshoots, jitters, and sometimes drags behind my intention.
With this setup, my hand never touches the paper directly. Every small nudge on the joystick is
converted into a motor movement, which then drags the pen across the page. The delay and friction in
this chain means the line is always slightly “late” to my intention. I started to see the drawing as a
record of both my micro-adjustments and the servo’s behaviour, rather than a pure output of my hand.
This experiment helps me frame the machine as an active partner in the gesture. The line on paper
carries traces of human hesitation, mechanical inertia and code-defined limits all at once, which
becomes important when I compare it with more direct and bodily forms of mark-making.
