‘Drawing blood’ takes on a different description for brooklyn-based artist Ted Lawson‘s ‘ghost in the machine’: A life-sized, nude self-portrait rendered from his own bodily fluid. Fed intravenously to a CNC machine, lawson’s blood traverses through the mechanical parts, while a robotic arm attached to the device — programmed to trace the designated illustration — carefully maps out the human form.
‘I have always used many different technologies to create my work and the goal is usually to find a way to turn those towards something organic and human.‘ Lawson tells us ‘I’m generally not into doing selfies, particularly nude ones, but when I came up with the idea to connect my blood directly to the robot CNC machine, it just made too much sense to not try one as a full nude self-portrait.’
