Reinventing Drawing

(4 Credits)

This course examines how drawing can be reinvented through code, machines, and computational processes. Traditionally, drawing has been understood as a manual practice in which marks are produced directly by the artist’s hand on a surface. This course expands that definition by approaching drawing as a system of rules, instructions, and processes that can be executed by humans, algorithms, and machines. The course combines creative coding, digital fabrication, and physical computing to explore algorithmic mark-making and machine-mediated image making. In the first half of the course, students experiment with software-based drawing using tools such as p5.js, translating code into visual and material forms through printing, laser cutting, and 3D printing. The second half focuses on designing and building a drawing machine or system and developing custom drawing behaviors using microcontrollers such as Arduino. Through hands-on projects and selected historical and contemporary references, students investigate authorship, control, and agency in computational drawing.