In this beginner-friendly, hands-on workshop, participants will learn the basics of Arduino and physical computing while designing and building their own abstract drawing or painting machines. Using motors, simple mechanisms and everyday materials, participants will experiment with movement, repetition, randomness and imperfection to create machines that produce their own visual traces.

The workshop begins with a short introduction to automata, drawing and painting machines, and generative art, followed by a practical introduction to Arduino and how to control motors and other actuators. Participants will then move into making, working individually or collaboratively to develop and build their own drawing machines. Depending on time and experimentation, the machines may also respond to sensors, data or other external inputs.

The aim is not to engineer machines that can produce perfect or realistic images. Instead, the workshop explores the creative possibilities that emerge when authorship is shared between human and machine — embracing unexpected behaviours, accidents and imperfections as part of the process.