Plink Jet: Performing the Ink Jet Printer

Developed by Lesley Flanigan and Andrew Doro

Plink Jet is a robotic musical instrument made from scavenged ink jet printers. The mechanical parts of four printers are diverted from their original function, re-contextualizing the relatively high-tech mechanisms of this typically banal appliance into a ludic musical performance. Motorized, sliding ink cartridges and plucking mechanisms play four guitar strings by manipulating both pitch and strumming patterns like human hands fingering, fretting, and strumming a guitar. Plink Jet is designed to play itself, be played, or both.  The result is an optionally collaborative performance between both the user and Plink Jet, with the user choosing varying levels of manual control over the different cartridges (fretting) and string plucking speeds (strumming).

The repurposing of consumer technology is a growing trend for artists and technologists in the DIY genre exploring circuit bending, hardware hacking and retro-engineering. Artists who have used the mechanics of printers for producing sound include Paul Slocum with his dot matrix printer and Eric Singer's scanner-inspired musical instrument, GuitarBot.  Inside an ordinary ink jet printer are the same toy-like, clockwork mechanisms that have delighted people and sparked imaginations for centuries. In the creation of Plink Jet, we have investigated how human improvisation can interact with these mechanical forms. Plink Jet transforms the predicable function of a printer into a unique and irreproducible performance.

 


Plink Jet manual control.mov
Plink Jet auto control.mov
Plink Jet - one jet play.mov

 

Plink Jet at the ITP Winter Show 2007

 

Plink Jet @ ITP Winter Show1.mov
Plink Jet @ ITP Winter Show2.mov

 

KEYWORDS:
Interaction Design
Repurposing of Consumer Technology/DIY
Performing Technology
New Instrument for Musical Expression
Robotics, Automation

SHOWS:
ISEA 2008, Singapore
NIME 2008, Genoa
BENT FESTIVAL 2008, NYC

PAPERS:
Plink Jet NIME 2008

 

Andy Doro is from New York City. After graduating from Yale University, Andy lived in China for two years pretending to teach English. He documented his travels through his photography blog, which was featured in Digiarte 2005. He is currently a graduate student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. His projects use technology to reveal hidden information systems. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Rhizome, We Make Money Not Art, Makezine, Core 77 and Engadget, and has shown at the ISEA 2008, NIME 2008, Bent Festival, Conflux and Digiarte. http://sheepish.org/folio/

Lesley Flanigan is a sculptor, vocalist, and sound artist in NYC. She likes to take things apart so she can put things together. Her work has been featured in Wired Magazine, We Make Money Not Art, Make Magazine, NPR and Engadget; recent projects are being presented at LEMURPlex in Brooklyn, NIME 2008 in Genoa, and the ISEA 2008 conference in Singapore; and she has performed at The Tank, Monkey Town, The Knitting Factory, The Stone, and Exit Art in NYC, Bent Festival in LA and NY, and at the ICMC 2007 conference in Copenhagen. She regularly collaborates with R. Luke DuBois in Bioluminescence, their audio/visual performance, and is working with Matthew Ritchie in The Morning Line, his interactive performance space opening in London 2009.  Lesley is currently a graduate student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. She loves tea and feedback loops. http://www.seseyann.com