NoRAA

Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Milan – Italy

I have basically an education in design and art and I am a self-taught in electronic and programming. In 2014 I started the project NORAA, an integrated system aiming to explore the field in between algorithms and the physical world. I'm interested in producing original emotional visual experiences made by a machine but close to a human sphere of sensibility. My system is constituted by a software that generates images and a device that executes the client software commands. I developed different devices fixed or mobile but at the moment I use two flatbed devices up to 150 x 150 cm surface. The device is built on top of an Arduino micro-controller that moves 2 stepper motors along the axis and two servo motors controlling the z axis and the grip used to autonomously switch colors with a system similar to a standard flatbed plotter. The system can be stopped to refill its markers. The device uses different kind of custom markers I can assemble with different sort of nibs' shape or sizes. I actually use liquid watercolor or acrylic paint with which I refill the pen. I used to work on both paper or canvas, wet or dry surfaces. The software is written in Processing(Java). I use it mostly interactively but I use a GUI that helps me on physical feedback (machine movements, colors rack settings, drawing preview etc.) the software is designed to produce a different drawing every-time, it can be launched to the device or redrawn. No saving is allowed.

Original Artwork


Patrick Tabarelli, 2016, {F}, acrylic on canvas, 35x35cm
Patrick Tabarelli, {F}, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 80x60cm
{F}, 2017, watercolor ink on canvas, 100x100cm