Octet

äk-ˈtet. : a piece of music written for eight voices or eight instruments

Octet is an installation by Marcel Schwittlick that features 8 vintage HP plotters.

During the installation's opening hours, Marcel created 60 drawings using the plotter machines while controlling them live via high definition midi controllers and real-time generative software input.

Analogue photography by Klodie Zengbé

1st Rehearsal

2nd Rehearsal

3rd Rehearsal

Final Rehearsal

Saturday Daytime

Saturday Night Performance

Sunday Daytime

Sunday Artist Talk

click for high-res

The drawings were created using three main algorithms. The first algorithm uses previously recorded mouse and cursor movements. The second algorithm was a chatgpt-generated line-generation algorithm written in python to simulate organic/human motion. (Essentially, an algorithm to simulate the movement of a cursor traveling over the screen while the computer was being used for other tasks.) The third algorithm was real-time cursor input, where all the machines simultaneously followed the artist's cursor on their respective piece of paper.

Vector Variations pitch: VECTOR VARIATIONS 2024.pdf

Photo and video by Joseph Devitt Tremblay

This project was realized with the kind support of despace Berlin / Petra Podobnik