Overview

Artists Manu Grosso and Ed Twaddle work collaboratively across drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. Their shared practice explores masculinity, intimacy, bodily presence and absence. Their work often begins with found digital images, which they have more recently been using as source material for mechanically produced drawings.

For this project, they used the 2 × 2 metre UUNA TEK 3.0 system to create large-scale works based on found images of bodies, interiors, garments and objects. Across these images, human presence is conveyed both directly through the figure and indirectly through the spaces, objects and material traces that surround it.

The integration of UUNA TEK pen plotters into their studio has significantly expanded both the technical and conceptual possibilities of their collaboration. Beginning with a UUNA TEK H A0 model and progressing to a custom 2 × 2 metre UUNA TEK 3.0 system, the plotter has developed from a production tool into an active part of their creative process.

Specifically, the larger 2 × 2 metre machine allows Grosso and Twaddle to produce large-scale drawings, experiment with customised tools and materials, and create full-scale templates for sculptures and installations.

Artistic Background: Drawing as a Trace of Human Presence

A central idea within Grosso and Twaddle’s collaborative drawing practice is the concept of the trace: the marks, objects and material remnants through which human presence is registered.

Their drawings move between bodies, interiors, discarded garments, domestic objects and other forms of everyday ephemera. In some works, the body is directly visible; in others, it is suggested through the spaces, objects and traces left around it.

Their source images are often taken from online archives. Many are compressed or low-resolution digital images. Through the plotting process, these images are transformed into large-scale physical drawings.

Rendering the images through a precise, vector-based mechanical process removes much of the visual noise of the original material. The mechanical precision of the drawing machine sits in tension with the intimacy and physicality embedded within the original images.

Why Use a Drawing Machine?

The choice of a drawing machine is closely connected to the subjects explored within Grosso and Twaddle’s work.

Traditional drawing is often associated with the expressive movement and physical touch of an individual artist’s hand. By transferring this activity to a machine, the artists deliberately introduce distance between themselves and the finished mark.

The plotter functions as a mechanical surrogate for the artists’ hands. The machine’s controlled and repetitive movements intensify the sense that something, or someone, is missing.

This displacement also complicates the idea of individual authorship. The drawings emerge through a collaboration between two artists, digital source material, software, mechanical movement and physical materials.

Integrating the UUNA TEK H A0 into the Studio

Before being invited to test the larger 2 × 2 metre system, Grosso and Twaddle had already begun integrating the UUNA TEK H A0 plotter into their studio and collaborative working process.

The plotter initially provided a reliable way to translate digital line drawings into large physical images. Over time, however, it became more than an execution tool. It began to function as a robotic studio assistant and an adaptable framework for shared experimentation.

The machine allowed the artists to test how found photographs and vector drawings could be converted into physical marks. It also created a meeting point between several areas of their practice, including:

· Photography

· Drawing

· Sculpture

· Installation

· Digital programming

These processes operate interchangeably within their work. A photograph may become the source for a plotted drawing, while a drawing may later function as a template, sculptural component or element within an installation.

The flexibility of the plotter allows Grosso and Twaddle to move between these formats without treating them as separate areas of production.

Scaling Up to a Custom 2 × 2 Metre UUNA TEK 3.0

Building on their experience with the A0 plotter, Grosso and Twaddle were invited to test how their collaborative drawing practice might develop at a much larger scale using a custom 2 × 2 metre UUNA TEK 3.0 system.

Working at this scale changed both the physical presence of the drawings and the ways they could be installed. Rather than functioning solely as images on paper, they could extend into the exhibition space as architectural or immersive installations.

At two metres across, the machine’s thin, uniform lines form an expansive network of spatial coordinates. The scale gives the drawings a greater physical presence, shifting the viewer’s relationship to them towards a more immersive, bodily encounter.

This creates a productive contrast within the work: an image concerned with human absence acquires a powerful physical presence.

The custom format also makes it possible to produce works in direct relationship to the dimensions of walls, floors and other architectural surfaces. Drawing therefore becomes a method of organising space as well as creating an image.

Translating Low-Resolution Images into Large-Scale Drawings

Scaling found digital images to two metres introduces both technical and creative challenges.

Many of the source images contain compression artifacts, pixelation and visual noise. Enlarging them exposes the limitations of the digital file rather than concealing them.

The drawing machine translates these imperfections into continuous physical marks. Digital glitches and unstable contours become precise ink lines on paper and other surfaces.

This process creates a contrast between the small scale, low resolution and apparent disposability of the source image and the large scale and physical presence of the finished drawing.

Through many hours of continuous drawing by the machine, the image is translated into a substantial physical work, bringing two very different scales, temporalities and forms of material investment into relation.

The resulting drawings give physical presence and scale to images that might otherwise be overlooked within the continuous flow of online content.

Custom Software and Experimental Workflows

The collaboration has also led Grosso and Twaddle to develop a specialised software workflow.

Rather than using the plotter only through its standard settings, they adapt its software for each work. Custom extensions allow them to change how the machine draws, including the sequence, movement and execution of individual lines.

These modifications can affect how an image is translated, how its lines are organised and how the machine moves through the drawing.

This makes it possible to develop a distinct plotting process for each project instead of applying the same automated method repeatedly.

Custom Pen Holders, Drawing Tools and Inks

Digital modifications are combined with physical interventions into the machine.

Within the studio, Grosso and Twaddle develop bespoke pen holders, experimental drawing tools and specialised ink mixtures. These adaptations allow the UUNA TEK system to work with materials and implements beyond conventional technical pens.

Changing the holder, drawing instrument or ink formulation affects the pressure, resistance and fluid movement involved in the plotting process.

This introduces a degree of material unpredictability into an otherwise precise automated system. Ink may bleed, drag, pool or respond differently to the surface as the machine moves.

These experiments explore the relationship between mechanical control and the unstable behaviour of physical materials. The resulting marks retain the regularity of robotic movement while also showing evidence of friction, resistance and failure.

Using the Plotter for Full-Scale Planning

The custom 2 × 2 metre plotter has also changed the practical organisation of Grosso and Twaddle’s collaborative process.

Alongside producing finished exhibition works, the machine can be used to create:

· Full-scale installation templates

· Structural layouts

· Cutting and assembly guides

· Mock-ups for sculptural works

· Plans for gallery installations

Producing these elements at a 1:1 scale makes it easier for the artists to understand how a work will occupy a room before it is constructed or installed.

The plotter therefore supports both experimentation and efficiency. It helps connect digital drafting with the practical demands of collaboratively producing a large installation.

Impact on the Collaborative Practice

The progression from the UUNA TEK H A0 to the custom 2 × 2 metre UUNA TEK 3.0 has expanded Grosso and Twaddle’s practice in several important ways.

Practically, it has enabled them to:

· Produce drawings at a large scale

· Translate digital archives into physical artworks

· Combine drawing with sculpture and installation

· Develop custom software and plotting behaviours

· Experiment with bespoke tools, inks and materials

· Produce accurate full-scale plans and templates

· Test ideas through a shared mechanical process

The plotter has also become conceptually inseparable from the work. Its repetitive labour, mechanical detachment and removal of the identifiable artistic hand reinforce the themes of intimacy, distance and bodily absence explored within their practice.

The machine can be seen as playing an active role in the collaboration. Rather than simply carrying out instructions, it gives Grosso and Twaddle a digital and mechanical system to work with and against—to test, adjust and produce ideas together.

Summary: The UUNA TEK Plotter as a Collaborative Studio System

The UUNA TEK system has allowed the drawing machine to become much more than a method for reproducing digital images.

Within Grosso and Twaddle’s practice, it operates simultaneously as:

· A large-scale drawing tool

· A robotic studio assistant

· A platform for custom software

· An experimental material system

· A full-scale spatial planning device

· A conceptual collaborator

· A mechanical system that shapes artistic decision-making

The custom 2 × 2 metre format has opened new possibilities for producing more immersive drawings and installations while maintaining the precision and distinctive physical qualities of plotted linework.

Through the UUNA TEK system, mechanical drawing has become a central part of how Grosso and Twaddle develop work together. It allows them to move between digital images, drawing, sculpture and large-scale installation, exploring the relationship between bodily presence, absence and the mechanically produced mark.