Radical Drawing Device is a machine-man performance piece by Jorrit Paaijmans. For this machine I designed and programmed the control system and electronics

What do you see when you think of drawing? A piece of paper, a pen, perhaps a pencil or an ink bottle. You probably don’t imagine a flight case containing a device. When the Radical Drawing Device (RDD) is taken out of its box, it appears to be a complex, yet clearly purpose-built device: a chrome ‘cage’ with clamps to attach it, a motor, and rails that guide a pen. Moreover, the RDD is an autonomous machine that radiates the sentiment: ‘calm down... relax, I can handle it myself’. With its sleek, streamlined design, the RDD impersonates artistic intelligence in an artificial way.

However, the RDD is not a cold-blooded contraption: when it is taken out of the flight case during a public performance, it immediately enters into dialogue with its environment. This conversation has many facets: from intensely personal and intimate to distant. It’s not a piece of paper, but the artist himself that is the canvas on which the RDD will draw. You see the pen, and, given the RDD’s name, you can expect a radical act of drawing. But just exactly how does it draw? What draws, and what does that mean? Jorrit Paaijmans questions the core elements of drawing with his RDD; they are anchored in the RDD.

From: The drawing from then
April 2020 - Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg, artcollector

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