Acrylic on paper, 19 x 25 in. Set of six.

Counterintuitive Friction is a series of six paintings created with a robotic pen plotter. The robot follows instructions produced by a generative algorithm that draws ribbon-like forms, bending and flexing in an invisible current.

Wider ribbons tend to be colored orange and red, while narrower ribbons tend to be colored blue and black. Interference patterns emerge from the combination of line width, spacing, orientation, and coloring of the ribbons. These six paintings comprise a representative sample of the program’s output.

A selection of paintings from this series is currently available for purchase at The Compound Gallery in Emeryville, CA.