Birds in Flight • Motion in Nature

Earlier this week I posted about David just finishing Journey which is one of the kinetic sculptures from his birds/flight series. It is a motion that continues to fascinate him. No wonder he sent me a link to this incredible movie of a murmuration or the dance of swarming birds. 

A bird ballet | Music Video from Neels CASTILLON on Vimeo.

It was captured by filmmaker Neels Castillon and his photo director Mathhias Touzeris. They were on a video shoot for a commercial, waiting for the right sunset and the birds started to dance. Take a few minutes to appreciate the art in nature.

 via: Colossal

Kinetic Animated GIFs by Paolo Ceric

We were both taken by the visual impact of the optical animated gifs design by Paolo Ceric and shared on Colossal this week.

Paolo is from Croatia and is developing his skills at creating visual art through coding. His website with more of his work is Patakk. Worth exploring.

The Event of a Thread Video

Back at the beginning of January, I posted about the kinetic swinging event by Ann Hamilton in NYC. A the time of that post I hadn't yet seen a video of the sculpture in action. One was posted on Colossal by Paul Octavious shortly after. Take a look......

Did any one go?

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 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