More kinetic sounds...

Writing about my "Chime Carillon" kinetic sculpture has me thinking about kinetic sculpture sounds. My current favorite is the very large sculpture Falling Water that is in our living room. I like the motion of this sculpture but after living with it for a while I think I like the sound it makes even better than the motion. Each of the 5 wheels makes a soft clicking sound and because each wheel moves at a slightly different speed the pattern of clicks is constantly shifting. It's hard to describe, sort of like a babbling brook or a soft rain but without the "wet" feel.

In this video I placed the camera very close to the sculpture to try and record the soft sounds it makes. When listening to it keep in mind that in a silent room these sounds can barely be heard from 20 feet away.

Children's Toy Design

A representative from a toy company contacted us in 1982 to talk about toy designs. He had seen my kinetic sculptures and wondered if I had ever thought of designing and licensing toy designs. This was also the year that our second daughter was born so we were getting well aquatinted with children and toys and the idea appealed to us. 

Our first design was the bicycling bear. Marji did the characterization and I did the mechanization. I built the model out of wood and Marji painted it and brought it to life. The toy company loved the idea but after a bit of research determined that it was too large (26 inches high x 22 wide) to make at a price people would be willing to pay. The mechanism didn't really lend itself to shrinking (the story of many of my designs!) so we had to put it aside. But the toy bug had bitten us and we started designing. We had an in house testing and inspiration department and the ideas just kept coming.

Eventually we licensed some designs and a few products actually came to market. In general though the final product bore no resemblance to our initial models and looked like every other cheap toy on the market. We grew disenchanted with the toy business at about the same time that our "inspiration and testing department" outgrew young children's toys. It was time to move on.

We have fond memories of that period. We had a great time designing together and with our kids. We met many wonderful people in and around the business. Probably most significantly to my current work, it was through the toy industry that I heard about constant force springs. You'll notice an abrupt change in power source between 1982 and 1983 in the sculpture archive.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from many sources. David and I regularly go on “art” excursions – not to look for specific ideas but to be inspired by the astounding creativity of others. A regular October road trip is to the high-end Paradise City Craft Fair in Northampton, MA. David started his craft career showing at these type of events but now we go as observers and as craft collectors. We followed that with a weekend in NYC going to the Museum of Art and Design to see the Slash: Paper Under the Knife show. Well worth a visit. To follow in the same vein check out the work of Peter Callesen. Very intriguing.

But Does it Tell Time?

by Marji 

David has been building kinetic sculptures for over 30 years and there are a series of questions that keep surfacing. Variations of "But does it tell time?" is a classic. There are many talented clock makers out there and telling time has never been David's goal. There just isn't enough motion in a clock. Or so we thought until I saw this video on Youtube. Here is a clock that definitely qualifies as a kinetic sculpture as well!

Evolution kinetic sculpture full cycle video

This video shows one full cycle of the kinetic wall sculpture entitled Evolution. Full cycle is the time from one push of the spring mechanism until the next. Evolution has a particularly long cycle time of about 5 minutes. Initially the two wheels move in opposite directions at similar speeds. The back wheel usually (but not always) slows down first and starts rocking back and forth creating constantly shifting patterns throughout the cycle. I find some of the most interesting patterns are created near the end of the cycle when both wheels are moving very slowly. Total run time is about 4 hours per complete winding. You can find more information about Evolution by going to the Evolution page at woodthatworks.com. I've detailed my thoughts throughout the design process earlier in this blog starting here.