"Machine Wall Drawing" Exhibition Combines Order and Chaos

Tristan Perich’s “Machine Wall Drawings” are one of the first exhibitions visitors to the Georgia Museum of Art encounter, on display on the Patsy Dudley Pate Balcony from March 20 to Nov. 18, 2014. Repeat visitors may notice something particularly unusual about these works of art: they change over time. The New York-based contemporary composer and artist has created a uniquely self-directed work of art that combines the control of a coded machine and the randomness of the influence of physical elements to highlight the role of both in visual compositions.

The drawings take up a 60-foot wall, on which they are completing themselves over the course of six months, using a machine designed and coded by Perich to introduce the impact of a carefully planned system while allowing physical elements to interfere at random and alter the final creation.

Perich explains on his website: “Varying levels of randomness — the probability the pen will change directions — produces the difference between straight lines or dense frenetic motion. While the motors’ movements are the result of the code executed precisely by machine, the final drawings come from the motion of pen on surface, and are wedded to the effects of the physical world: the ripple of the string connecting pen to motor, the gradual depletion of ink, the texture of the paper.”

This month, on Sept. 17, the museum is offering a Tour at Two focusing on “Machine Wall Drawings” for visitors interested in learning more about this exhibition. The museum is also hosting a special event the following day at 5:30 p.m. to premiere director Russell Oliver’s documentary about the drawings. The screening will conclude with a live Q & A with Perich.