Drawing is human: what happens when we attempt to draw remotely and independently from the body?

The exhibition Scripts – a chronicle of incidents, directed by Edouard Cabay and hosted at La Casa Elizalde in Barcelona, displays an extensive series of drawings produced without the hand, emerged by the relentless gesture of a mechanical device, alimented by an external source of information.

The exhibition presents the work of Machinic Protocols, an investigation line within the Master of Advanced Architecture of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, held in fall 2016. Structured in three different sections, it features automated plotting machines, data-driven cartographical drawings and performing architectural models.

The drawings displayed are mechanically created, yet featuring irregularities: no two drawings are the same, the strokes are unique and their form is anything but homogenous. “Calligraphic qualities emerge from the machinic gesture, bizarrely resembling the movement of the hand of the artist.” says Edouard Cabay, curator of the exhibition and director of the project.

The exhibition raises the questions of the replicability of an artistic artefact and of the role of chance in creative experimentations. The moment in which the machine seems to lose the traditional precision that normally characterizes it is when the most powerful results are produced.

Scripts – a chronicle of incidents
19 April – 18 May 2017
Casa Elizalde – Carrer de València, 302, 08009 Barcelona
Monday – Saturday – H 10.00/13.00 – 16.00/21.00
Opening Wednesday April 19th at 19:30
Closing Sunday May 28th 2017

Public commented visits at 19:30
Thursday 4th of May – Olga Subirós
Thursday 11th of May – Josep Perelló Palau
Thursday 18th of May – Vicenç Altaió

Exhibition Credits
Direction: Edouard Cabay
Assistant: Lili Tayefi
Computation: Rodrigo Aguirre
Physical computation: Angel Muñoz
Photography: Xavier González
Drawing: Rung Jeng Hong, Hsin Li
Scenography: Appareil

Machines
Machine #1: Valerie Frey
Machine #2: Kathleen Bainbridges, Irene Ayala Castro, Yasmine Wery, Krati Gora
Machine #3: Athanasios Zervos, Keesje Avis
Machine #4: Cagan Izgi
Machine #5: Gleder Van Limburg Stirum, Pablo Agustin Vivas
Machine #6: Hsin Li and Jeng Rung Hong, based on original work by Nasser Ghannam, Mohamad Rachid Jalloul, Ceren Yildrim and Guolang Zhang
Machine #7: Mehmed Berk Bostanci
Machine #8: Anonymous

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Areti Markopoulou, Academic Director
Silvia Brandi, Communications Director
Mathilde Marengo, Academic Coordinator
Marco Ingrassia, MAA01 Coordinator

Machinic Protocols
Edouard Cabay and Rodrigo Aguirre

Host:
Cultural Centre Casa Elizalde