MAD Museum • Mechanical Art & Design

Do you live in, near or are traveling to Stratford Upon the Avon in the UK soon? If so you might want to put the MAD Museum on you must see list.  They have just moved/expanded and reopened on 4/5 Henley Street. They have included one of my sculptures, Swoop, in their exhibit along with an extensive collection of other kinetic art.

They sent a series of photos from opening week.

Looks like a place I could easily spend an afternoon! 

For those that can't visit, online info is a little basic at this point.  Not a lot of photos or videos of the work in the museum.  They do have and extensive resource list of kinetic artists on their site here which should provide all of us with hours of online exploration and entertainment!

Searching for Sculptures Across America

It has been quite awhile since I've posted on the blog and for good reason. Marji and I have just returned from a 7 week road trip exploring America. We left on September 5th with few specific plans but several broad goals. One of those goals was to experience any sculpture parks we traveled near. Some folks collect baseball parks, others national parks. We collect sculpture parks.  The quest was inspired by our frequent visits to both Storm King Art Center (Mountationville, NY) and Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton, NJ).

We started with a Google search that ended at a Wikipedia article listing sculpture parks around the world. We concentrated on the USA for this trip! The first park to cross our path was the Scandaga River Sculpture Park in Wells, NY. It was in a remote area near the Adirondacks and we had our doubts as we followed the GPS. But it led us to the beautiful garden of artist John Van Alstine and his studio. It was our lucky day because the artist was home. We had a delightful visit.

Sculpture and Photo credit • John Vanalstine

John told us of a recently published book by Francesca Cigola titled Art Parks: A Tour of America's Sculpture Parks and Gardens, and recommended it as a resource for our travels. We located it on Amazon and had it waiting for us at a friend's home as we passed near Pittsburgh.We used it extensively and adjusted routes to view the parks shared in this book. It directed us to a wide range of parks and wonderful sculpture across America. We saw very little new kinetic work (more info later), but many exciting sculptures.   

The book was helpful in locating some extremely interesting parks. Be sure to cross reference things with online resources because some have restricted viewing. Of note, the northeast has the highest concentration of sculpture parks by far and we never knew about a host of them. We didn't visit any of those because we can see them as day trips from home. We have some interesting weekend trips ahead!

Here is a quick overview of a few of our discoveries.

Normade by Plensa at PapaJohn Sculpture Park Des Moines, Iowa

Sequences by Richard Serra at Cantor Art Center, Stanford University

A Flock of Signs by Kim Beck at 100 Acres in Indianapolis, IN

Our trip was exciting on many levels but especially because of the art we saw, both natural and man made.  I will continue to share additional information about the various sculptures parks we visited across America in future blog posts. Check back regularly. You might discover a place you need to visit!

Time Flies......Sculpture by Daniel Arsh

Catch the visual motion in this static sculpture.

Daniel Arsham is a sculptor from Cleveland, Ohio currently in New York City creating works that make me smile.

  He shares a large body of work at his website. I especially like the works that incorporate the wall. Take a few minutes and check it out here.

Kinetic Whimsy

There is more than a little whimsey built into every kinetic sculptor. That is why an idea like this just makes me smile.  I bet it does you as well. Enjoy the ride!

 

This bicycle elevator was designed by Ethan Schlussier of , Idaho. It lifts him to his tree house - soon to be bedroom, up in the tree tops. Fun!

Via Makezine and Colossal

Recording Human Movements

Here are some amazing photographs and videography that depicts the beauty of the human form in motion in a visually fascinating way. 

 These designs are part of four different pieces created for CCTV by the Taiwanese design house of JL Design and KORB. Take a minute to view the video. It shows how the above photograph is derived from human motion. It is mesmerizing. It would make a dynamic sculpture. Could one combine this with 3D printing?

via Colassal