Andrew Chartier

Le dioxygraphe

This kinetic sculpture is made from a golf cart, with electrical components and a mechanized wheel with four dry chalks. A carbon dioxide detector affixed at the end of a flexible rod picks up the insidious presence and, with the help of a microcontroller, feeds a drawing machine. Operating in the street or the sidewalk, the apparatus takes some twenty seconds to leave a trace, making the environmental contaminant visible. The artist/wastician works over a long period, tracing an artery of busy streets and revealing a sort of transient document of atmospheric contamination.