Show HN: I built an interactive plotter art exhibit for SIGGRAPH
I'm enthralled with using pen plotters to make generative art. Last August at SIGGRAPH, I built an interactive experience for others to see how code can be used to make visual art. The linked blog post is my trials and tribulations of linking a MIDI controller to one of these algorithms and sending its output to a plotter, so that people may witness the end-to-end experience.
The linked article is about an interactive art installation that combines art, code, and pen plotters. The installation allowed a person to play with a MIDI controller, see a resulting image on a screen, and then send the image to a pen plotter. The article goes into detail about the design process, including the use of generative algorithms in P5.JS, the use of the Intech Grid series MIDI controllers, and overcoming UX problems. The article also explains the technical implementation, including the use of WebMIDI API, SVGs, and HTML canvas, as well as the creation of a mobile app using Expo and React Native to sideload the drawing app on the iPads despite Safari not supporting the WebMIDI API. Finally, the article discusses the cloud job manager, custom NextJS application, Postgres database, DO Spaces, and Eleventy microsite used in the project.