Mechanical Principles 1930

A collector of David's work from Israel sent us a link to this wonderful short video by avant-garde filmmaker and photographer Ralph Steiner. It is a collage of mechanical motion. It is on YouTube but the fascinating fact is that it was made in 1930 or 1933 depending on the Internet source you read!

I appreciated the comment posted by Regreex on the youTube site labeling the various mechanisms.

"Some of the mechanisms featured: 0:16 Positive displacement pump 0:26 Four-stroke engine piston 0:50 Simple steam engines or pumps 2:00 Steam engine reversing gear as on ships 3:10 Differential gear 4:05 Worm gear 4:10 Archimedes screw 5:22 Geneva gear 5:32 Pawl and ratchet 5:55 Grasshopper escapement 7:15 Scotch yokes 8:07 Positive displacement pump (same as 0:16) 9:29 Wheel-and-disc integrator used in analogue computers 9:54 Possibly a turbine"

Thanks Tzippi for the link.

Kinetic Flight • Searching the Portfolio Database

Over the years David has designed 16 different sculptures inspired by the flight of birds. It started with a his first flight design, Voyager in 1987. The variations have been many with the most recent piece being Frolic. 

A collection of flight designs by David C. Roy

We do know that collectors that like the flight pieces want to see all the flight pieces. This is now possible on the website.

This past fall, David and I spent months rebuilding the Wood That Works website from scratch. In so doing we have added new functionality in various areas, including search. David has been designing and building kinetic sculpture since 1975 and there are hundreds of different designs. All are listed in the Portfolio area but still, it is a lot of posts to search through. 

Here are some quick directions on searching in David's Portfolio.

First Click on the Portfolio link in the navigation bar.

Search by Name

If you know the name of a sculpture you are trying to get more information about, just enter it in the Search Portfolio by Sculpture Name field and click on the arrow to the right. (Yes, spelling counts! :-))

Search by Category

Scroll a little further down the window and in the right-hand column you will find a Category Index. In this area you can search for particular categories of sculptures by clicking on the different labels.  

The categories I have already identified and separated out include the following:

• Chimes
• Flight Theme
• Free-Standing Sculptures
• Large Scale Sculptures
• One-of-a-kind Sculptures
• Each Year

I just identified and added the tag to all the "Flight Theme" sculptures. Click on any of these links to see a sorted list of links to the appropriate sculpture pages.

Are there any other themes you want me to identify?

List of All Sculptures

Further down the right-hand column is an alphabetical listing of all sculptures. If you think you know the name of your sculpture but aren't sure, scrolling through this list might help you recognize it.

It is interesting to search through David's work and see the changes over the years. 

Kinetic Swinging in NYC but we missed it!

On what fun! A group swinging event in NYC. From the moment I saw the photos of this art exhibit by Ann Hamilton I wished I could have experienced it.

 

Oh, the exhilaration,  the motion, and the group dynamics. I would have loved to have visited this installation at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC but it has just closed. 

I have been seeing photos of it around the web all month but no video. Does anyone have a video of it with people swinging? 

I'd love to here about the experience of swinging. I am not so sure about the 42 pigeons also in the exhibit but, oh the swings!

If you went please share your thoughts in the comments! 

Photos by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images, Bebeto Matthews/AP, CollabCubed, Park Avenue Armory

Kinetic Whimsey • Productive Rocking

Some kinetic ideas just make us smile. This is one of those. The action created by rocking a chair back and forth is used to power a kniting machine which, in turn knits a cap. Slow and easy!

photo © nicolas genta

The video is short and worth a quick view. Oh, to be a student again!

This ingenious device is the project of students Damin Ludi and Colin Peillex at the ECAL University of Art and Design in Switzerland. Via Apratment Therapy.

Kinetic Sculpture Event • Adrift in Your Ocean • Brooklyn, NY

Do you live in or near Brooklyn, NY? If so you might want to put the following event on your calendar. There is a show at Wayfarers Studio located at 1109 Dekalb Ave., Brooklyn, NY opening on January 6th. Here artist David (Scout) McQueen will be showing a collection of kinetic sculptures inspired by writings of Vincenzo Gamba, the illegitimate son of Galileo. According to the show curator George Ferrandi it will include large installation kinetic sculpture components and beautiful brass work.  You can see a variety of David (Scout) McQueen's work on his website. The following piece was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's work.

Source: David (Scout) McQueen

Source: David (Scout) McQueen

Source: David (Scout) McQueen

I am fascinated! How about you? 

Additional show details: Dates: January 6- February 17, 2013
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 6, 6-9 PM
Gallery Hours: Open Weekends 12-6 PM or by appointment