From the Series
Installations that call on some form of audience participation are always fun, and well, interactive. And with Drawing Machine No 1 by Joseph L Griffiths you can do it "To Your Heart’s Content", as the project's subtitle encourages.
By pedaling a series of belt-driven gears and wheels on a stationary bike people can contribute to Grffith’s creative cycle. The bike is used as a tool for drawing on a large canvas.
The front wheel of the bike spins an apparatus that draws circles on the canvas using coloured markers. The other drawing device is attached to the handles bars and reflects the sideward movements of the handle bars onto the canvas.
Griffiths wanted to utilise “primitive technologies… to encourage a reconnection to the natural and man-made worlds through manual crafts” in a world of increasing digital dependence.