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You Can Finally Be An Artist With This Self-Portrait Machine

New Media artists Kyle McDonald and Matt Mets create a device that guides your hand as you draw.

Photo by Tramell Hudson.

We’ve come across plenty of drawing machines in our time, but we’ve never seen one quite like this. New Media artists Kyle McDonald and Matt Mets unveiled a new project called "Blind Self-Portrait" this weekend at the 3rd Annual NYC Resistor Interactive Show. The project takes the idea of collaborating on a drawing with a machine to a whole new level.

"Blind Self-Portrait" is a device that guides the viewer's hand in drawing a self-portrait. Created with openFrameworks, FaceTracker, and parts of a MakerBot, the machine takes a photograph of the user’s face. Using McDonald’s face-tracking technology, it interprets the image and translates it into x- and y-coordinates. The device then uses the coordinates to direct the viewer's hand as he or she draws a likeness of themselves. The result is a self-portrait created by the viewer's hand and the machine's “mind,” observing the relationship between man and machine.

Photos by Kyle McDonald.