Turntable Drawing Machine developed and built by Dr Jack Tait, Clyro, Herefordshire, England, 2012
This analogue drawing machine has a turntable, a rotating pen set and a 'to and fro' linkage moving the turntable. It was initially designed to explore circular images, which was productive particularly for using light as opposed to pens.
There are three motors involved, one for each movement and these can either be on at the same time, going at different speeds or switched on sequentially by a 'time' programmer. Whilst the machine can run independently of a programmer, sequential switching tends to produce the most interesting images. It can also be used with a more complex external programmer similar to an Enigma machine.
It is the only one of Tait's machines that combines external and internal programming which makes it versatile.
This machine is part of a group developed and built by Jack Tait as part of his work over 50 years investigating the role of machines in making art and specifically how simple instructions can create complexity. The final drawings created are known as ‘taitographs.’