Muralizer is a drawbot, a robot that draws on walls. You connect it to a computer and it acts something like a printer, taking a file created in Illustrator and putting it up on a 8′×8′ wall (~2.5m × 2.5m). This allows all sorts of artists to create murals, signs, and other large pieces with precision and ease.
Other drawbots have existed in the past, but they all tend to be art themselves. They are installation pieces: the point is that the robot has a program loaded onto it that builds complicated patterns, and people watch as it builds them. This is something like a mandala, in that the art is the creation of the piece, not the piece itself. As such, they don’t usually hook up to a computer to print arbitrary things, but are loaded with programs that generate patterns. This is really cool art, but it hints at something useful: a ginormous printer. This is where I’d like to take muralizer. My vision for muralizer is as a tool, like a printer or paintbrush, allowing everyone to turn computer art into a mural with the push of a button.
With the community’s support, I will build muralizer as an open kit, with plans downloadable off the internet. I’d also like to make it available as something people can just buy, making it even more accessible to artists everywhere.
