Thank you! That was actually close to my first idea for this installation. I wrote some code to re-imagine a raster image as a vector, but I couldn't find a way to keep the detail while also keeping the drawing time below 10-15 minutes. That's how I arrived at the MIDI idea.
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Something that struck me while watching the video at the top is how much I enjoy the low latency of the software UI to the buttons. Very cool!
Yeah that’s a great idea. I’ve got a bunch of plotter seeds on observablehq with sliders to control different parameters. For example:
https://observablehq.com/@josephg/simple-sin-waves-plot
I’ve never thought of using a midi controller to noodle with them. That’s a great idea!
It's much harder than buying ready made plotter, but you can do a much faster plotter yourself [0]. Probably a little cheaper too.
If you compare against the new hobby plotters -> sure those are somewhat crappy. I am a bit surprised about how much they cost. Those plotters are essentially using the same parts as low end 3d printers, but have half the axis, no heaters, and simpler controller controller boards. Considering that Ender3 goes for $150-$300 why do something like Axidraw or iDraw are closer to $500-$1000? I guess pen plotters now are much smaller niche compared to 3d printers and the effect from efficiency of scale is much bigger than I expected even if most parts are widely available.
But if you look at the commercial pen plotters that were made for doing actual work like HP 7475A - those things fly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe9VWvtvNtg It's mostly vintage models, but you can still occasionally pick them up on ebay and other marketplaces for a price that's comparable or better to the new hobby ones. There are also new vinyl cutters that you can attach a pen, but since the main requirements are different they aren't as fast.