Applied Kinetic Arts

Deer III

Got most of the insect figure worked out. It has a flicker bulb for it’s abdomen and I’m still playing around with some crank shaft mechanisms to move the legs.

This mornings goodies. I’m particularly excited about getting the fake painting to work: gurgling sounds, flowing, back-lit waterfall, etc. Also lolling forward to finally organizing my nuts and bolts, though I suspect I’ll always have a screw loose.

Deer III

Typewriter parts

36”x15”x36”

2010

Jeremy Mayer

Deer III.

Typewriter parts

36”x15”x36”

2010

Jeremy Mayer

I got a beautiful old adding machine yesterday from the Sonoma County Museum sale.

Deer III

36”x15”x36”

Typewriter parts

2010

Jeremy Mayer

nemomatic:

Jeremy Mayer came by my studio yesterday to photograph his deer sculpture (the one on the left). We decided to do a group portrait with one of mine as well.

Jeremy Mayer came by my studio yesterday to photograph his deer sculpture (the one on the left). We decided to do a group portrait with one of mine as well.

Working on using a violin scroll for the head on the new piece.

Buggin out today. Furniture scraps and piano parts.

Just finished the next in my series of delusional modes of transportation, “MortalCycle”. I’ve been playing with this concept of 10 years now, and have several new takes on it coming soon. This particular one was a commission for a collector.

Close up of drive mechanism

close up of the organic-mechanic innards

right side view

diag. view

back to work now.

Burning Man is gigantic and filled with all manner of fabulously gigantic stuff to point your extra wide eyeballs at.

You get there and feel overwhelmed by all the blinky lights and the UmmOmphUmmOmphUmmOmph of the massive flaming speakers. When you start asking around, you realize everyone is talking about the same two or three pieces.

You know, those extremely large pieces. They’re the ones you’ll find thousands of photos of, the ones you’ll see again somewhere, someday.

But what about the smaller pieces? I don’t think they get enough attention. So, here, in no meaningful order at all, are 7 great, smallish pieces you might have not gotten to see this year.

#1 – Gizmo by David Boyer

I had trouble finding photos of this one on the internet, and had to email David to get a good one.  David has brought several of his sculptures to the playa over the years, but this one really caught my eye. This was a really well done, stylish, wind-powered, kinetic sculpture that entranced me for some time.  Be sure to check out this video of Gizmo in action. Photo by David Boyer.

2 – Big Eyed Bunny artcar by ??

Bunnies aren’t new to the playa, but this one was so wicked and weird I kept telling everyone to be on the lookout for it. Each of the huge geodesic eyes had a round screen with some very choice images projected on them. Best use of hot pink fuzz this year. Photo by jonandesign

3 – Future’s Past by Kate Raudenbush

I love Kate Raudenbush’s work. I love everything about them. Future’s Past had several thing that resonated with me. I loved the highly detailed, faux-circuitry lit in green contrasting with the warmly lit symmetrical tree. Inside, a small alter with a mirror reflected a delicate, suspended metal mandala that hung from the ceiling. Photo by Hammon

4 – Home by Michael Christian

It’s simple: a large metal glob whose surface is composed of several maps of cities layered atop each other. When lit from within and spun by a participant, the effect is hypnotic (and dizzying). Check out this video of the piece at night. Photo by Hunter Luisi

5 – Zark! by Quentin Davis

This large, day-glo green curve beckoned to me from across the playa for days before I finally got around to checking it out. First, there is not much color in most Burning Man art, and, boy, did this piece have some color. From a distance, the color and the shape worked really well. When I finally made it over to the piece, I was captivated. Davis had sculpted and lit a series of small domes out of playa around the huge caterpillar, visually weaving a story of strange insects that lived in the playa. Inside the large green guy was a well, sculpted from hundreds of small play brick. At the bottom, beneath the surface of the playa, was a sculpture of a miniature city that was wonderfully lit. You can see a photo of the city here. Say it with me here people, Zark! Photo by Eccentric Jeff

6 – Oink by by Laura Kimpton, Jeff Schomberg and Celtic Forest Crew

Does that O look familiar? The folks who brought MOM to the playa reused the lovely O to make the word Oink this year. I love the idea of sculpting giant words. I always wanted to sculpt the word Boom! in a comic book font. I met Laura pre-event and asked her about the font, but can’t remember what she said. I love the font. I hope they bring the N back another year. I really like that N.  Phot by David M*

7 – UnNatural Selection by Michael Coy

This is a nice photo, but it doesn’t do the work justice. A large, rotatable “exquisite corpse”-style display of several wonderful and strange paintings. I loved it as soon as I saw it. After I spent a few minutes trying to get all the paintings to line up at the same time, I figured out that it was impossible, and that made me love the piece even more.  Photo by WayWard or Michael

Here is the final video for my new piece “Leporid-Eye”.  You can see more images and details here.

Here is the final video for my new piece “Tightly Wound”.  You can find more images and info here.

http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2010/09/19/nemo-gould-sculpture-2/

SF20 featured on SF Gate: Here is a nice write-up of the SF20 show with photos from the event.

The days haul in brief: gaudy furniture parts, push mower, vacuum cleaner, bull horns, neon sign transformer, various power supplies, copious amount of bubble wrap, etc.

Another day in paradise.

Hand III

Assembled typewriter parts

5”x 4”x 14”

2010

Hand III

Assembled typewriter parts

5”x 4”x 14”

2010

Here is an image of my display at SF20 at Fort Mason in SF through this weekend.  Lots of great stuff to see there.

SF20 – 20th century Modernism show and sale: For those of you in the San Francisco Bay area,…

This is a fantastic idea.  I love the idea of my Exploratorium friends running around Black Rock talking to people about the science that is all around them.  Everything from the chemistry of glow-stics to the physics of a white out. Check out their youtube channel for more.

I recently had the pleasure of drinking a margarita made in a rather unconventional way.  Thank you David Calkins.

Doing a little tune-up work on “Party of One”.

My friend Patsy owns my piece titled “The Red Chair”. I made it way back in 2001 and as you can see it’s in my older style – all wood and much more colorful. She said the man’s hat was missing after a recent move to North Carolina. She sent the piece to me and I carved, painted and attached a new hat. I also had a chance to shoot a few movies of it in action.

The hat I carved, on the end of my favorite X-acto knife. (For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been doing the majority of my carving with this knife. It’s easy to spot on my cluttered work table because it’s green!)

I wanted to make a simple crank, which ended up not so simple. I had to add the yellow slider piece to keep the red connecting rod at the same angle all the time or the mechanism would lock up.

Closer view showing the chunky gears and how they mesh.

For scale -the man is exactly 3″ tall.

Back to working on the piano piece tomorrow – I’m building out/embellishing the piano…..

Almost Scientific will be showing The Neuron Chamber and The Uira Engine at the Sonoma County Museum’s upcoming Mad Science show.

The show opens October 30th and runs until February 6th, 2011.

This is going to be an amazing event!

Almost Scientific will be doing a high voltage performance on opening night alongside the legendary Survival Research Labs.

The show also features Applied Kinetic Arts members Nemo Gould and Reuben Margolin, as well as Exploratorium alum Ned Kahn.

Here is the museum’s description:

Mad Science

October 30, 2010 – February 6, 2011

This exhibition explores creative projects inspired by the convergence of art and science. The term “Mad Science” is used to emphasize the edgy and experimental work by this group of Bay Area artists, who are scholars, scientists, and classically trained artists. Represented here is work by artists at varying stages in their careers: Mark Pauline, the founder and director of Survival Research Laboratories, Reuben Margolin and Ned Kahn, who both work internationally on large-scale architectural projects, Alan Rorie, a Stanford-trained neuro-physiologist (Almost Scientific), Nemo Gould, known for kinetic found-object sculpture, and Andrew Sofie, a recent Sonoma State University graduate. The works range from mechanical objects to videos, and from the apparently dangerous to the humorous. Look forward to a Survival Research Laboratories street performance on October 30 at the members’ opening of the exhibition.

Here’s a look under the hood. Gotta love old cell phone chargers.

Fine tuning ‘ol sour puss today. I hope to have it finished soon ( hope to have a better title too).

Here is another video of the piece I’ve been working on.  I’ve added an eyeball to the mix.  Enjoy.

One last thing on the arms – since I need the arms to be heavier, I drilled these holes and poured in molten lead. I’ve done this a few times before and it works well. I covered the lead with a mixture of wood glue and sawdust. When dry, I file and sand it down. After painting, this “adjustment” will be undetectable.

After carving all the body parts I sculpted the head from polymer clay. Since his head will nod slightly, I have to work that out before I can finish the figure.

I drilled a hole in the neck which will be the pivot point. His neck this time is solid wood- I do this because the polymer clay, even though I have a supporting stick inside, isn’t that strong. His head is at a slight turn towards the audience.

His head and the finished pin in the neck.

The line to move his head goes around a rod – usually I use screw eyes, but a rod seem better here. As the line is pulled his head goes up. The line runs inside a small brass tube that runs up through his body. I had to drill out section in his chest so the lever that connects to his neck has room to move.

Th figure is finished, and this shows the final position of the upper arms. Since he’s not sitting straight on to the piano I adjusted where his upper arms were positioned. Only his lower arms will move.

Final position of the piano and figure. At this point everything has to be “nailed down” because now it’s on to making the mechanisms and from this point forward nothing can move, or change. To get their positions correct, I placed them on a piece of paper and traced around the legs of the piano and the figure’s feet. Then I determined how big the base would be and it’s orientation.

Now it’s on to making the mechanisms and the base…………..

Today’s weird donation: mystery “health device”. Thanks Wendell.

Yard sale. I don’t usually go for these, but this one is pretty classy and the price was right. We’ll see if I can come up with something worthwhile to do with it.

Red-eye Jedi.

Its the little things in life….

If you are anywhere near San Diego this weekend, find your way to “Creatures of Industry” at Device Gallery.  I’m showing with Greg Brotherton, Jeremy Mayer, and Guillermo Rigattieri.  

Deer III at Device Gallery.

Working on a back lit eye socket.

Self portrait for the day.

I started a new unnamed piece the other day – a man playing a piano. His arms will move and I’m pretty sure his head will but have not worked out how or which way.

In order to start making the figure, I first had to establish the overall dimensions by drawing it out full-size. This told me the height of the keys, so I had to start there. There have been a couple of starts and stops on this one. First I was going to use a couple of old boxes from which to build the piano, but then decided I needed something more refined and found this jewelry cabinet that seemed better. Also I wanted to hand-carve the keyboard, so I laid everything out and carved it. When it was done and painted, I realized it was too formal and opted for a more funky stylized keyboard that was actually a little easier to make.

Here are some in-progress images —–

Beginning the carved keyboard, (I still have it and it may work itself into another piece).

Carved keyboard finished. You can see I made it wavy, but it was not funky enough for this piece.

A more better keyboard – I glued a bunch of tiny pieces of wood together.

The keyboard installed in the piano – I was working out the position of the arms and how the figure addresses the piano.

My drawing of the hands.

The hands ready to be cut on the band saw.

After cutting they look strange.

Carving finished – it took all afternoon but I think they came out great, and I didn’t break off any fingers or drop them. I had to add some bits with glue, (the black blobs).

I saturated them with thin CA glue which makes them much stronger – now I can quit worrying about breaking them.

The hands attached to the arms, notice the 2 different colors of basswood.

The figure’s body. I will have to make or find something I can use for a chair.

More later!!! Now I got to get back to work.

Here we go again…

After much trepidation, I’ve decided to move my blog over to a new site: www.nemogould.com. I still plan to post the same sort of stuff, just in a new place. This switch means it will be easier for me to post more often. Please take a moment to click your way over there and subscribe to my new RSS feed.
I’ve also embedded a preview of the feed on the page titled “blog” in the menu above.
Once the dust is settled I plan to take the old “news” page down, so be warned.

Here is a quick video test of an ear-wagging mechanism for my latest piece.

I’m just experimenting with Tumblr. Bear with me through a few nonsensical posts.