This vending machine draws generative art for just a euro

If you hear the term “generative art” today, you probably subconsciously add “AI” to the beginning without even thinking about it. But generative art techniques existed long before modern AI came along — they even predate digital computing altogether. Despite that long history, generative art remains interesting as consumers attempt to identify patterns in the underlying algorithms. And thanks to the “Generative Art 1€” vending machine built by Niklas Roy, you can experience that for yourself by spending a single euro.

Roy built this vending machine to display at the “Intelligence, it’s automatic” exhibit, hosted at Zebrastraat in Belgium. Rather than AI, Roy gave the machine more traditional algorithms to generate abstract pieces of line art. Each piece uses the current time as the “seed” for the algorithms, so it will be unique and an identical piece will never appear again. And the current piece, shown on a screen in the machine, always evolves as time passes. If a viewer sees something they like, they’ll need to insert a euro coin immediately or risk losing the opportunity to secure the art.

Once paid, the machine will use a built-in pen plotter to draw the line on a piece of paper. It will also label the art with a unique identifier: the seed number. Then, it will stamp the paper for authenticity. Finally, it will cut that piece from the roll of paper and dispense the art through a chute at the bottom.

That all happens under the direction of an Arduino Mega 2560 board. It controls the pen plotter, which is a repurposed model called Artima Colorgraf. The coin-op mechanism is an off-the-shelf unit and a Python script, running on a connected laptop, performs the art generation. What message is this vending machine meant to convey? Maybe that art is ethereal or that it has little value — just a euro — to modern society. Whatever the case, it is a work of art in its own right.

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