Controlling the esthetics of the kinetics has been a long instructive process. My earlier piece Slowdance, (see album) had a rotating base I grew to dislike more and more as a dogs dish! I wanted to eliminate the base from being part of the piece, so made it the top of a display plinth. The top of the plinth rotates, and is contoured as a very shallow dish/plate of size and depth to confine the pieces to be in contact most, but not all, of the time. Its axis of rotation is very slightly tilted with respect to gravity, by tilting the plinth itself. (A convenient plinth is a cut-off of a sewer or gas pipe (from 1 inch to 5 feet long) Its based is fashioned into a tripod of imperceptibly short legs, one of which is continuously adjustable using a nut and bolt. A mechanism, the impulse motor described for earlier pieces, is underneath and rotates the top of the plinth slowly and independently of the base. All this provides an ever-changing imperceptible multidirectional slope that the sphere and femisphere are taken up and then roll down. One full rotation, adjusted here to be about one hour, involves about four to five movements of each piece. Their movements are random, since the relative position and contact between pieces mutually enhance or hinder each response to the changing slope. I had never imagined how mechanically complex this simple system could be. And yet the kinetics are esthetically minimalist and pleasing.
The kinetics can be seen on youtube at (
http://www.youtube.com/user/RPRkinetics).
Comments/critiques/reactions - positive, negative, constructive, destructive - always welcome as instructive.
