This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Chatterley, Mark, Kinetic Sculpture, Metal Sculpture, Sculpture, Tyler, John. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
The mechanics of movement is another aspect of kinetic sculpture that is rigorously designed, and as much or more agonizing goes into crafting the movement of the piece as goes into the overall concept. The key here is “trial and error”, and sometimes a dozen different versions of the same piece are laboriously built and tested before a flawless design results.
Some artists shorten the trial-and-error phase by using SolidWorks, computer software used in mechanical engineering, to prototype how the center of gravity will shift as the sculptural members move in the wind.
Trial versions, whether virtual models or physical mock-ups, must also be constructed to test the lateral forces acting on the piece, and to simulate the effects of using different counter-balancing strategies. An intriguing piece that graphically demonstrates the concept of counter-balancing is “Rockette 1″ by John Tyler, which uses actual rocks to keep the flow steady and smooth.
How the pieces are connected is critical to the harmonious movement and proper functioning of a wind sculpture over time. Masters of this art (and science) include but are certainly not limited to Lin Emery, Moto Ohtake and Jeffery Laudenslager.
Joinery typically incorporates pivots, pendulums, rotors or gimbals depending on whether the intended movement at that joint will be in a two-dimensional (back and forth) or three-dimensional (up and down, around and around) plane. A “down and on the ground” movement is not an option here, so as one can imagine, a lot of time and effort is spent designing those movement joints.
The engineering of wind sculptures encompasses a final level of design complexity over static sculpture in that the piece is designed to be experienced dynamically over time. To complete each work, kinetic artists design the equivalent of several different sculptures so that all the various permutations that will occur over the dimension of time are captured. Computer animations and physical mock-ups illustrate how the different sculptural elements move in relation to one another, and provide a preview of the negative space and positive forms that will be created at any moment in time.
Sculpturesite Gallery in San Francisco and A New Leaf Gallery in Sonoma feature kinetic sculptures in various materials by artists who each approach the engineering, as well as the aesthetic design process, differently. Come compare and contrast, and learn more about these fascinating works of art!
