User:Zuhui//Drafts/Plotter and I

There’s something magnetic about the pen plotter. I can’t fully explain it, but maybe it’s the machine’s personality: it’s old, it’s loud, and it tears my paper apart. It’s not supposed to, but it does. Watching it move, scratch, draw an awkward streak of line which I didn't even ask for, and sometimes fight against the paper makes me wonder about its actions, its presence, even its spirit. There's a kind of physical dialogue between us, back and forth commands and responses.

Since I started treating the pen plotter unlike any other machine, I’ve been wondering: Is the pen plotter performative? In terms of performativity as discussed by J.L. Austin and Judith Butler. If it's not, then what would it take for it to be?