Created by Niklas Roy, Generative Art 1€ is a coin-operated vending machine for unique plotter drawings. A generative algorithm continuously draws an animated black line on a screen, offering an endless stream of potential artworks. Each piece exists in a transient digital state until someone intervenes by spending a coin. The installation questions the intrinsic value of machine-generated art, while also democratizing art consumption and collection by making original artworks affordable to all.
Shifting from passive observer to active participant, the audience plays a crucial role in the process. They make the curatorial decision to give the ephemeral digital drawing value and to turn it into a physical work. Inserting a coin triggers a pen plotter to precisely transfer the digital lines from the screen to paper. Once completed, the drawing is labeled with the seed value, then stamped for authenticity, emphasizing its status as an original work. The participant just became a collector of fine art and can take the art piece home.
Niklas Roy
Each interaction with the installation produces a different result, as no two drawings are identical. The uniqueness stems from the algorithm’s use of the UNIX/Epoch time as a seed variable. This ensures that every interaction with the installation creates a distinct piece.
The heart of the machine is a recycled Czechoslovakian “Aritma Colorgraf” plotter which Niklas has already used in his previous projects positioned beneath a modified flatscreen display without the screen’s backlight. Two DIY mechanisms handle the finishing touches, windscreen wiper motor pulls the stamp via Bowden cables onto the paper, while a hobby knife glides along a linear rail to cut the paper. After cutting, the artwork drops into the dispensing chute.
(Right: A simplified version of the generative algorithm, automatically ported to JavaScript)
The coin validator talks to Arduino Mega that also drives the plotter and the rest of the hardware and it continuosly communicates with the laptop in the back of the machine. The laptop is the brain of the whole process, running a Python program that continuously generates the drawings. This UNIX seed mentioned earlier, feeds into various functions that calculate 1000 coordinates, which are connected to form a line. It would take about 137 years before the machine can render the same image again, using an identical seed.
Learn more about the project on Niklas’ website including all the making off photos, Python and Arduino code and sketchup model.
The instalation is part of the exhibition “Intelligence, it’s automatic” at Zebrastraat in Gent/Belgium. The show was curated by Thierry Dufrêne and lasts until 8th of June, 2025.
