Six modules arranged along a wall draw lines by moving left and right while maneuvering pens suspended on strings up and down. Video footage of the two artists projected onto the opposite wall is captured by a camera and analyzed, and based on these data the modules draw their portraits with continuous strokes.

When we paint pictures of certain objects, we cannot continue to look at the respective object all the time. The act of drawing starts with visually grasping a certain situation, after which an idea of how to depict the object is formed in the painter's mind, which is then translated into movements of the hand. In the case of the drawing modules, the drawing process is based on images of the object captured by a camera, from which single frames are arbitrarily selected and algorithmically digitalized. The resulting data are finally transformed into the modules' operations.

In their collaborative works, KANNO and yang02 have been pursuing the possibilities of mechanical drawing. In this day and age, machines can be equipped with work capacity that clearly outstrips human operation in terms of precision. However, here the artists deliberately leave room for incidental noise to enter the drawing process - through the mechanism of suspended pens on strings, or through visitors captured by the camera to become part of the imagery. They consider such noise to be the creative element of machines, and have been aiming to define human creativity from the arising contrast between mechanically and man-made.

KANNO So + yang02 Profile
Started producing artworks together in 2011. Their "SENSELESS DRAWING BOT," a drawing machine utilizing the chaotic movement of a duplex pendulum to reproduce graffiti writings, received a New Face Award in the Art Division at the JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL 2012. At the Sapporo International Art Festival (2014) they introduced the "SEMI-SENSELESS DRAWING MODULES (SDM)" for drawing based on temperature, humidity and motion data detected by sensors.
Past Exhibition / Event