One of the items purchased for the Dawson Center for Innovation was an AxiDraw pen plotter. Investigating how to get the machine up and running and then diving in and exploring computational creativity has been unbelievable. There are so many possibilities in terms of technique, content, processes, etc. Participating in several #PlotterTwitter card exchanges definitely pushed me to learn more about how other artists create their work.

This project was inspired by two different concepts that came together in the form of a Chandelier. I had been experimenting with polar equtions using the graphing calculator program called Desmos to learn to create various shapes on the AxiDraw plotter. I found the smooth curves and patterns to be appealing and wanted to learn more about our CNC router so I decided to try and create a milled plywood chandelier based on one of the shapes I generated in Desmos. This led to learning more about importing shapes into Fusion as well as a whole second phase of learning about powering and controlling a large number of LEDs in a new way. Thus introducing me to Pixelblaze!