I love the process of cyanotype and the deep blue color. In High School, we had an experimental photography class where we did poster-size enlargements by unbolting the enlargers in the darkroom and turning them around to aim at the floor in order to print our images large on bulk photo paper. We also made cyanotypes using objects and 35mm negatives, just to play with the process and with composition. I have made cyanotypes a few times since then, printing negatives from digital photos. This time, I want to experiement with hand-drawn images and also to use the drawing robot to create images that mark time, as a record of a 4-minute period in time, the duration of a song
My first experiment was at the pond while my kids were in their swimming lessons, just using sand from the beach. I used two towels to block the light and made may sand composition. After exposing for about 2 minutes, I rinsed the emulsion in the pond, which I regretted afterwards. I then stained a part of the composition with cherry juice, to see what it would look like.
My second attempt was with an old 4×5 negative. It’s from a time that I tried New 55 Film with an old cambo field camera. Here is the setup:
I ran into some trouble with this attempt. First, the paper was still very wet. It was a thick rag printmaking paper and it soaked up a lot of water when I painted on the chemistry, but I was impatient to try. The water condensed under the negative and the glass, making a haze that produced a speckled pattern. In addition, when I went to wash off the emulsion, it washed off almost completely. I’m not sure why this happened, but I suppose it must have been because the exposure was too short. I guess it could also have been the paper.
The last experiment is one that shows some promise, but I ran into a serious technical issue so I am going to try it again tomorrow. The idea is to create a drawing that marks time using the drawing robot I made in Teaching in New Media. I programmed the robot to respond to music: when it senses sound that is about a certain volume, it sends a command to the 2 servo motors that rotate the wheels to rotate at a random value between -20% and 20% speed. This creates a drawing with a lot of curves and elliptical shapes, sometimes circles or straight lines. It want to use this over the cyanotype to create a drawing that marks time. The robot generates its drawing using a Posca marker on acetate, and as it goes the line becomes fainter as the cyanotype is exposed. Here are images:
I also took a video of the robot working, but I want to try again because one wheel was not turning so it was making circles. I will post again about the next try. I think it could be interesting if the drawing is more interesting, and it is another piece of research into makring time.