The Drawing Machine

Harvey Moon's new Drawing Machine is one of the coolest new artistic contraptions that I have recently come across.  Essentially, he designed computer software algorithms to control a pen, which can produce pretty amazing results.  How it works: the computer reads an image file and interprets it into a sketchy yet realistic and accurate replication. One thing to note about his machine is that it actually works (according to the video on his site).  I have seen similar devices like this in the past, but the images that they produced hardly compare to the quality that is on his Kickstarter page.  

[images: The Drawing Machine]

Trey Anastasio's New Guitar

For those of you that follow the band Phish, you might have noticed the new look of the lead guitarist's - Trey Anastasio - guitar.  Paul Languadoc, a luthier and former sound engineer of Phish, built him his new axe this last year and gave it to him to play this summer.  The body and neck are carved out of koa, an expensive wood from Hawaii, while the fretboard, bridge, and tailpiece are carved from ebony.  Trey has owned a number of different versions of this Languadoc design with the main differences being the wood selections and the electronics.  The original prototype, built in the 1980's for Trey was based off of the Fender Starcaster.  For a more detailed specification of his rig visit strangedesign.org.  Enjoy...   

[images: the fifth corner]

Mapping Friends

If you haven't seen this yet it's worth taking a look at. It is an image titled The Facebook Map of the World, and was released earlier this month by the web giant Facebook. Essentially, it maps connections made through "friends" on the website, the densest of which are in the white areas of the map. It's interesting to note that the map does not contain any geographical or political borders at all, but instead just "friend" connections. Take a look...

[image: fastcodesign.com]

Apocalyptic Architecture

As quoted by Jean-Pierre Roy at length:


'My paintings are the result of a life spent wanting to know what forces make up the cosmos. They are totems to the sublime nature of change, and pictoral meditations meant to slow our passage through the 4th dimension. It is the search for a balance of opposing forces - atomic cohesion vs. repulsion, the manufactured vs. natural systems of organization, precision vs. abstraction, hard vs. soft, and broken vs. whole - that drives my desire to discover the divine systems of the universe.


While asknowledging their cinematic escapist influences, my dystopian constructions of a new American Mythology join a more psychological tradition of apocolyptic self-exploration and spectacle...a 'romantic landscape' born of a post-Hollywood age.'

I Never Meant to Remember All This, oil on panel

Dream of Parted Steal, oil on canvas, 2008

We Make Our Own Meridians, oil on panel, 2008

The End of the Old Model, oil on canvas, 2008

The Parade of the Blind Traveller, oil on canvas, 2007

The Defeat of Anthropy, oil on canvas, 2007
[All photos by Jean-Pierre Roy]