Applied Kinetic Arts

While in Ann Arbor I picked up some, um uh,  percussive nuts. I’ve immediately found an interesting use for them.

For the past six weeks I’ve been working away on my latest piece; Yelling ‘Theater” in a Crowded Fire. It’s freestanding, electric, has a couple of interesting clutch mechanisms and makes lots of sounds. Here’s the rough video and, did I mention how much I love the smell of WD40 in the morning?

Here’s one of my favorite films from Ann Arbor, an early short film adapted from a short story by William Burroughs. Having had my share of broken drill bits, solder burns, broken taps and a million other little shop accidents, I find this a wonderful reminder in my day to day.

The Brothers Quay film “Maska” was one of the highlights of Animated Films in Competition last night at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. This film was the dark apex of a beautifully curated selection of animation, some of the best I’ve ever seen. An adaptation of a story by Stanislaw Lem, a Polish science fiction writer, Maska addresses cybernetics in a feudal word. It is a dark fairy tale and terrifying story of technology. The lighting and puppets were amazing! Here is the teaser.

After the screening there was a interesting question and answer session.

To my left is Bryan Boyce, creater of Walt Disney’s “Taxi Driver”, a hilarious mash-up of Scorsese’s film and Disney movies. To my right; Meejin  Hong, creator of Soil ( I loved the surface in this ), Juan Camilo Gonzolez, who’s film SISISISISISISISISISISI worked with cycles in four quadrants, building on sucessive drawings. Tianran Duan, creator of In Between Shadows, who’s work reminded me of the pinscreen animation of Alexandre Alexeieff; Shadows and light move slowly across a structure. To my far right is Ben Popp from Portland. His film Lázslo Lassú uses primitive looking black and white cut out images which marry beutifuklly to the Balkan folk music of Hawk and a Hacksaw.

This week, I’m giving my sore hands a break and attending the Ann Arbor Film Festival, one of the longest running events focusing on underground and experimental film and video.

The Michigan Theater, where the screenings take place features a lovingly preserved theater organ. Music starts 20 minutes before the screening, as the lights go down, the organ slowly lowers into the orchestra pit! An added bonus, there are a couple of really interesting installations in the theater lobby including a very cool pedal-powered Zoetrope By Jodie Mack.

Tonight, my film Secret Bee will be part of the animation competition along with films by the Brothers Quay and Steven Woloshen.

The fourth in my series of smaller pieces. “Clap Clap Clap” is based on a pair of offset cranks and a horizontal cam. The egg was a wooden form which had been buried in dirt for a year or so, this is a cool way to age and degrade objects if you have the time. I love the surface which results from this process.

Joel Frenzer and Alan Foreman do a regular podcast on all things animation. This month, I’m the guest and talk about Sing Sing Prison, Cactus Thorns, Animation and Kinetic Sculpture!

Frenzer Foreman Animation Forum

I’ve been continuing on the track of creating smaller pieces. The latest, “I Feel Fine” is based on the Kinematic Machine in the video below. The model is from the mechanical engineering collection at Ohio State University and inspired me to create this piece.

For the next few projects I’m scaling things down a notch, working with lighter materials and smaller sizes. “Three”  is the first of these “sketch” pieces and features a lucky accident with a Maltese cross Geneva. After scrapping several designs for the driver, I came across a ribbon feed from an old manual typewriter. The fit, even down to the width of the driving pin was miraculous. Sometimes, you just luck out. Perhaps this will make up for the millionth time I’ve lost a tiny part between the cracks in my floor

We start 2012 with something a bit different; a collaboration with Multi Talented Boston artist Josh Wisdumb. His work includes paintings, drawings, sneakers, tattoos, sculpture, video, musical instruments and hell, just go to his site and take a look.

Polynomial was created by working together on a sketch and outlining pieces which I cut from aluminum sheet. The pieces were synced using bead chain and sprockets, balanced then delivered to Josh’s studio where he responded to the forms as seen in the video below.

Just in time for the end of the year is a new piece “Si C C señor!”. I enjoyed working in the horizontal format although navigating around my small studio with this was a bit of a challenge. Check out the release mechanism at minute 00:16 .

I tend toward ambiguity in most of my work, that’s why I’m a bit surprised when a narrative emerges. In this case, the latest monster on the workbench, “Si” brings together a geneva made from an a plate printed with a map of New Hampshire, some numbers from a scale,  a bit of Spanish and the usual assortment of odds and ends.

I’m still not quite sure what this is all about but I suddenly like it (after a bit of struggle!)

With December almost here ( and it still feels like summer in New England ) we have some beautiful shots of my most recent work thanks to photographer Elizabeth Neville. All of these pieces can be seen,  starting tommorow at Aqua Art 11 in Miami. I’ll have some photos from the show later this week.

I don’t know what’s getting into me lately, I keep setting out to do short sketch pieces and before I know it, all this… Check out the double clutch mechanisms, upside-down bell, trademark bird and, of course, daddy. BTW, there’s a bit of shaking 1/3 of the way through the video; me trying to stand up on a chair while filming.

Next week I’m planning to shoot this fall’s new work and make some videos with a little less shake so stay tuned .

First off, here’s a spankin’ new piece titled “Nothing is done”. This one emerged after playing around with the reversing mechanism developed a few weeks ago. Note the play between the bird moving vertically on the bead chain and the horizontal back and forth near the top.

Upcoming Shows:

I’ll be exhibiting 5 new pieces early December at the Aqua Art Miami contemporary art fair during Art Basel week. It will be taking place  December at the Aqua Hotel, 1530 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. The show dates are December 1-4, with a preview party on Wednesday evening, November 30. This looks to be a great show and is keeping me fairly busy cranking out new work this month.

I’ve been wanting to work on a very vertical piece and after two weeks fighting rust, humidity, tiny parts rolling into floor cracks, small oil fires and the like, here it is. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present 7 & 36 for your viewing pleasure.

It’s the first week in September and my annual trip out to the mega flea market in Brimfield Massachusetts for materials. Many of the objects I found will make their way into work produced over the next few months.

Since last year, the area was hit by a devastating tornado and several months later, they’re just beginning to clear things out. Driving in, I crossed huge swaths of land where  treetops were lopped off like someone came in with a giant buzz saw. The town has been recovering slowly and the flea has been played an important part in raising money for rebuilding. Link to tornado relief fund.

Speaking of weather, the first thing I encountered this year was a giant mud pit which added a bit of extra spice to making my way through the the treasure trove.

The big find this year was egg beaters of all sizes with some terrific gearing. Lately, I’ve been using these to gear down my sculptures by using the little output gear for the input. One of my favorites has a very unusual gear using a series of holes as teeth. Very cool.

I also picked up some delightful lead figures including this policeman, I try and find objects with wear and damage and avoid all the “mint” stuff. I love the wear on his nose, the missing hand and the gesture.

Here’s another guy I fell in love with, I already have a few ideas for using him in a piece. In addition, I found some terrific wood blocks with interesting graphics, wood balls and a very unusual mechanism. Any ideas what this is for? My guess is that it’s a locking device activated using a solenoid. At any rate, the curved rack and pinion should prove to be very useful.

I want this!

Stay tuned to find out where everything ends up, I’m going to post later this week on an interesting piece under-way.

Here’s the mechanism detailed yesterday. Works like a charm! As always,  music while working courtesy WFMU;  Irwin’s terrific Murial’s Treasure archive of vintage Calypso and Soca.

So, it was a bit windy in the Northeast today and a good opportunity to spend Sunday in the studio (that’s the view out my window). This week marked the start of a new body of work and I’m continuing to explore interesting mechanisms and forms.

For this first piece I came across a reversing rotary motion using an input driving two gears. Here’s the basic structure:

The input (red circle) moves clockwise, pushing a lever attached to a gear (in blue) along. Because the fulcrum of the lever and center of gear is offset from the center of the input, the lever stops moving at 180 degrees. A second gear meshing with the first is attached to an output shaft. A lever extends from this and makes contact, causing direction to reverse and everything moves back to the original position.

Here’s the frame underway and Frida, my faithful studio hound waiting for the storm to abate.

At Work on Vaca

Here’s an update on “Vaca” my summer Direct Animation Project. As with my previous films, House Bunny and Secret Bee, I’ve been working on 35mm trailer footage with ink, paint and pieces of film.

So far I’ve completed a bit over 20 seconds. Here’s the clip (music by João Mascarenhas/ Stealing Orchestra).

One of the few downsides to creating and showing mechanical work is the occasional malfunction. Over the years I’ve become fairly skilled at creating bomb-proof pieces. Still, with the traffic I’m receiving at Schoolhouse, one of the works; “F*ck, I Forgot to Dilate” became “Stuck I Forgot to Dilate”.

My little studio in Provincetown is basically a desk in my bedroom and it’s not the best place to repair kinetic sculpture. Aside from a few screwdrivers, pliers and a tiny butane torch there’s not much to work with. Especially lacking are clamps of any kind. Looking around for a way to hold things in place while making the repair, I made a wonderful discovery; Bobby Pins are the perfect size and shape for holding steel wire while soldering!

The little ridges are just the right size for holding onto 1/16 inch piano wire. When I return to Somerville, I’m going to keep a jar of these on my workbench.

Starting off  post Fireworks of July, here’s some people getting cranky at the opening Friday Night:

I couldn’t be happier with the turnout. After all the months of effort, it’s exciting to see people enjoying the work. In addition, the pieces had quite the workout and everything held up beautifully.

Switching Gears

Sequestered in my smaller studio on the cape, I’ve been starting on #3 in my series of camera-less animated films. Similar to Secret Bee and House Bunny, I’m starting out with an interesting piece of music. This years pick is Mensagem da Dona Lina by Stealing Orchestra. ( links to the song and their Myspace page). Stealing Orchestra is the brainchild of João Mascarenhas of Porto, Portugal. I’m very excited to be working with his music.

To start I’ve broken the piece down frame by frame, creating a timeline on graph paper. This helps me become familiar with the song and allows me to draw, scratch and paint in time.

Today was install day at Schoolhouse. After so many months scattered around the studio, I’m a bit awestruck to see the work in a well lit gallery space. Thanks to everyone who’s supported me during the past few months with feedback and encouragement. I look forward to seeing many of you at the opening tomorrow.

photo: Mike Carroll

Here’s the unofficial flyer for the show this Friday night. Opening 7:00 to 10:00. Blue skys abound and it’s a nice time to come to the cape. Hope to see ya there!

As usual for this time of year the traffic to Cape Cod is ramping up and the beaches ’round Provincetown are filling up with girls, boys, others and umbrellas. Two sure signs of summer: Director John Waters seen riding his bike down Commercial Street and people promoting comedy and drag shows handing out flyers on the beach.

Speaking of promotion, I’m super excited to be presenting my new work at Schoolhouse gallery. The opening will be July 1st and the show will run through the 20th. The eight, well-oiled pieces created this spring will be there in all their glory. After the work, rough hands, soldering burns and eye-strain , it’s wonderful to be presenting this work to the public. Hopefully, people will be cranking and happy.

Stay tuned for video clips and photos of the work as it’s installed and pix from the opening.

Thanks to photographer  Elizabeth Neville , all eight new wall pieces are on the Wall Work page of GinaKamentsky.com . Here’s some terrific detail shots:

By the way, for those interested in heading up to Provincetown this weekend. “My Good Side” a piece I created for the Provincetown Film Festival Auction will be showing at Schoolhouse Gallery. Here’s info on the event In the Can:

In the Can is an exciting event that will support the current effort to purchase and renovate the Whaler’s Wharf Cinema by the Provincetown Film Society. Over 30 film canisters have been distributed to artists and Film Festival Friends and are receiving individual treatments with beautiful, ingenious, wild and hysterical results. There will be an opening night reception for the auction at the Schoolhouse Gallery on Friday June 10 from 6-9 PM.

See ya’ll there!

With summer off to the official start, lots of things happening on the horizon. First off, I’ll be relocating to Provincetown for a few weeks to start a new Direct Animation project and install my show at Schoolhouse Gallery on Commercial Street.

Before getting to the show details and such,  I’ve created, “My Good Side” for the P-Town Film Festival auction. Several local artists are modding  film cans into art pieces to raise money for the fest. Here it is:

All proceeds from the auction will go to the Capital Campaign to support the purchase and renovation of the Whaler’s Wharf Cinema by the Provincetown International Film Festival. I’m a part-time resident and proud to be supporting this wonderful theater.

SUMMER SHOW:

I’ll be showing eight new works, some profiled on this blog at Schoolhouse from July 1 through 20 along with Keith Maddy and Bernd Haussmann. This is a great time to be on the Cape. I’ll be the one heading out for beer and Wellfleet Oysters with a truckload of Drag Queens, after the opening ( Friday the 1st ). More on this as details come in.

Meanwhile, here’s “One Thing” a piece which will be in the show:

I removed half of my bike bell for this one but it was worth it.  Little bits and pieces around the house disappear when creating new work. I can just yell next time I need to alert someone when on my bike. This is piece number 8 for the upcoming show at Schoolhouse Gallery. Note the ratchet  12 seconds into the video. The lever on the right of the drive wheel kicks it back and frees the star wheel for it’s next  bit of indexing. The click sound is a nice bonus.

I haven’t switched to generic titles for my work. It’s just that the name of this piece is a bit adult in nature. The mechanism at the top is once again from “Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook” .

I feel like Amy Adams as Julie Powell in the movie Julie and Julia. Instead of cooking every dish in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” I’m building every mechanism in Nicholas Chironis’ book.

By the way if you really want to know the title of the piece just contact me through the comments!

As we head toward summer ( I’m being optimistic ) and my annual show. This is number six in my growing body of work and features a Sinusoidal Reciprocator. Can you spot it from the illustration below the video? I bet you can!

Sinusoidal Reciprocator

Image from the classic and oft mentioned “Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook” by Nicholas Chironis.

Here’s my latest in this developing body of work. Finally breaking out of the circle a bit!

I was turned onto this installation by Tsuyoshi Anzai the other day and instantly fell in love with the humor of his work. Here’s a snippet from his artist statement for the piece

“Stop MAKE-ing Machine” robs machine of the goal. But the machines robbed importance don’t turn into only useless thing, try to move as machine losing concrete significant as machine.You will feel something like a humor and lovability that you never feel for industrial machine.

wonderful!

Here’s a quick low rez video of My Artist Blocks. I just completed this extravaganza yesterday, mounted it on the wall and breathed a sigh of relief. This was definitely one of the more challenging works in my new series of kinetic wall pieces. The key to having the piece work smoothly was balancing the blocks and creating linkages which operated effortlessly. Geneva Drives are cool but not very good with stress, tends to throw things out of sync.

This is why I love making this work, each piece, I learn a bit more!

Mexico & Inspiration

I’m back to some new work after a wonderfully inspiring week in Guadalajara Mexico and nearby towns Tlaquepaque and Tonala. I find travel in this part of Mexico especially inspiring. After a few days drinking Pulque in Tlaquepaque I returned home happy and full of ideas. I love that the 500 Peso note has artists rather than politicians on it: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera no less!

This very cool motorcycle made from junk parts was sitting in front of a shop in Tlaquepaque, the masks are part of a collection at the B&B where we were staying, every surface was covered with paintings, ceramics, folk art, masks and toys.

BTW, I’m saddened by the continuing violence in this country which along with the tragic loss of life  affects the tourist industry and economy. I’ve ventured to this part of the world several times and always find the people to be some of the warmest, creative and resilient I know. Luckily, this part of Mexico has been untouched by the violence so far.

Blocky, New Work in Progress:

I began this piece a few weeks ago and have been waiting for some new parts to come my way. These beautiful blocks were part of a child’s toy from Finland. I’m creating the piece to flip the blocks up in sequence. The mechanism is a six step Geneva and the linkage is similar to one I created for an earlier work ” Engine Room”. After drilling out the blocks I’ve added some wire fittings to connect to the linkage. The video demonstrates the first block in action.

block demo from Gina Kamentsky on Vimeo.

Here’s Another pick from 507 Mechanical movements, #153. I love the simplicity, this is one of my favorite devices for turning rotation to linear movement. BTW the book is a free download and fun bedtime reading!

One more plug, the music in the background is courtesy of WFMU the best damn free form station in the world. I don’t know what I’d do without having songs like Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” (covered by Big Blood) in the background while I work. WFMU is having their annual fund raising marathon, throw em a few bucks!

In other news, House Bunny my animated film from 2010 is up for a number of nice festivals:

• On March 22 it will be showing opening night at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. This is a wonderful festival in Michigan in its 49th year.
• It will also be showing at part of the Black Maria Film Festival. Both of these festivals have tours so stay tuned and I’ll update on the schedules.
• Finally House Bunny will also be part of The Boston Underground Film Festival. I’m excited about this one, it gets better each year and in my fair city  ( as they say on Car Talk! )

I’m moving ahead with piece number four in this latest series. I’m planning a slow moving Geneva with this one and thought it would be interesting to use an eggbeater as the initial drive source. Luckily I have a nice collection of beaters to rip apart:

Beat Box

By reversing the input we have a nice gear ratio. Note that I’ve cut off the original Crank and attached it to the small drive gear. I love the worn green wooden handle and how the eggbeater’s been reconfigured for the drive.

By the time I’m done, there’s not much left of the original egg beaters! Next step in the process is the Geneva drive. I’m working with a drive which will index 60 degrees each rotation. This will trigger 6 different events. The drawing in the photo below details the mechanism.

Here’s our video clip for today showing the Geneva and Egg-citing ( sorry for the pun ) project in action.

For those of you checking back after last Wednesday’s progress. The piece is finished. I ended up balancing the block linkage with a set of round counter weights and I love the rhythm of the piece. The work, titled “Engine Room” is here for your viewing pleasure.

For those of you interested in some of the techniques and hurdles in creating the Mechanical Sculptures on this site, I’ve documented today’s process, so here we go!

I’ve been working on a new piece for a week or so, the heart is a Geneva wheel which spins an axle with some cam-like levers 120 degrees each revolution. I’m trying to build a linkage which flips some little blocks up and then down for each contact of the cam lever.

Yesterday ended with a VERY wonky  lever system and a mess-o-wires. Before starting today’s venture I did a little planning in Adobe Illustrator:

9:30 AM

Started out creating a contact lever using some square brass tubing. Holes are marked using a caliper, center punched and then drilled. I’ll need three levers in all but am going to make just one to see if my calculations are correct!

Yesterday's Mess

With the holes drilled I solder some 3/32″ tubing in place. I use a ton of this tubing which clears a piece of 1/16″ piano wire beautifully. I believe in standardizing sizes when building, saves time when I limit myself to just a few sizes. I don’t have to mess around figuring which size drills to use and everything fits with just the right amount of slop.  BTW,  slop factor is super important, keeping  joints a bit loose is one of my secrets and highly recommended.

Next step is making the connecting lever. I’m creating this from a cam shape that I have lying around. I have lots of scrap metal from metal plates with US state maps. That’s where the text comes from.  I’ve cut out  a slot  to figure out positioning the wire which connects the two levers.

Here’s the contact lever and the top lever connected with a piece of wire. Whew, time to take a break and have a second cup of tea.

10:45 AM

The third step in this linkage leads to some found wooden pieces which will flip from horizontal to vertical. I’m using a scrabble tile to test this before I work with my precious blocks. Using the same 3/16″ bit, I’ve drilled out the tile and inserted some tubing.

I’m a bit worried about being able to drill the hole straight through the side of the tile. Instead I cut a slot in the bottom of my blocks. A bit of epoxy holds the tubing in place.  Here they are along with the final wheel shaped levers cut out and drilled.

1:30 PM

I make a bit more progress on the final levers. Frida is looking bored and I need a break to get some coffee. Big bonus; on the way out the door  a tiny metal guy found on eBay shows up in my mailbox . whahoo, very cool!

After my walk and loaded with Caffeine and sugar I dive into production. Now that I have everything figured out, it’s just a simple matter of making all the parts. Note the spacers between the levers top and bottom.

4:30 PM

I’m spending quite a bit of time readjusting the length of wire between the top levers and the blocks. It only takes a tiny bit of movement to change the block position. I’m starting to crash  as the Big Vietnamese Coffee I had around 2:00 starts to wear off.  Before quitting I shot a little bit of video. Note the Buffalo clips holding some of the wires in place. These are great for setting parts up for soldering and another item I can’t live without!

It works! I’m exhausted but happy with my progress. Perhaps it’s time for another coffee?

I celebrated the completion of my last commission,  purchasing some new supplies for my work; gears on eBay, steel and brass tubing, a new caliper and ( fanfare please ) an OptiVisor Headband Magnifier. Every once in awhile I find a tool which becomes indispensable to my work. I do tons of close up soldering and am lacking in the eyesight department, nearsighted and farsighted. I bought the 2 1/2 magnification and OMG, it works! Wearing these brings me into a beautiful micro world where everything is sharp and clear, I might never leave. Makes a HUGE difference in creating solid solder joints, not to mention how sexy it looks.

BTW, the text below is an affiliate link to Amazon, I believe I get about $3.50 for every one sold, good for coffee and a blueberry scone!

Donegan OptiVisor Headband Magnifier 2 1/2X Magnification

We’re being hit with one snowstorm after another and it’s pure happiness to be in the studio creating this new body of work. I’m shooting for 8 pieces by late spring and just completed #2. This one is titled “The Silent Partner” after some music that happened to be playing while I put on a final layer of oil and signed the piece.

There’s quite a bit to look at with this one, I ended using the Geneva wheel featured a few posts back to move the little blue business man, the section on the right uses a counter weight which rings a bell. On the left is a block turner and a little cam mechanism which interacts with the block a bit. Here’s a low res video tour:

BTW, thanks to Nemo Gould at the Applied Kinetic Arts Blog. I’m excited about being a part of this great community of talented people. Posts from “On the Workbench” will be featured on a regular basis.

I keep a worn copy of 507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T Brown on my workbench. This book, published in 1868 and released by Dover for $7.95 ( probably the best 8 bucks I’ve ever spent ) is a gem.

One of my favorite techniques is to select a mechanism from the book as a starting point for a new piece or a section of a piece. The video below is a variation on mechanism #86:

It’s taken me a few days to get the trip lever to balance correctly with the addition of some gears from an ancient egg beater. I’m fairly happy with the result!

One thing about the rain rain, snow rain, slush outside; been spending lots of time in the shop. This week we are cooking up a new piece. Soul Geneva refers to a Geneva mechanism I picked up in my Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook. As the description mentions, it is a Gold Mine of information on Mechanical Design, Yee Haw! ( I clicked the “inspiration” category three times when I said that ).

Unknown Soul music from decades past keeps me happy while I work ( Thanks Brother Wayne! )

That might be the title of my latest piece, something like “What does One Thing have to do with Another?” but I might not have enough room on the piece to write it all. The last two days in the shop have been very productive. The big highlights are a neat little wood block which turns 90 degrees for every 12 revolutions of the crank and the bell ringer. I’m finding easy ways to do things these days, a simple piece of spring wire keeps both this and the bell ringing ratchet in place.

Speaking of the ratchet on the right, it was tricky. There’s a sweet spot where the arm pushes the ratchet forward and I spent most of the afternoon adjusting things. Eventually I ended up making the horizontal movement which powers the whole thing go about 1/4 inch further to the right and that did the trick wonderfully.

It’s been a wonderful week on the workbench, I have a nice chunk of time between Xmas and new years and I’m treating myself to a week in the studio. Here’s the latest piece I’m cooking up. So far we have back and forth motion. I’m interested in the rhythm of this action and might add a bell on each side. On top we have a ratchet mechanism powered by the vertical axle. I used a very simple spring to keep the ratchet indexing properly. It was an easy solution and works really well!

Latest Kinetic Sculpture from Gina Kamentsky on Vimeo.

It’s a wonderful feeling, having lots of time in the shop with a hot cuppa tea and a raging snowstorm outside. Good time to focus and do what I love. For your lo-fi viewing pleasure, here’s the completed work and two run cycles. Before I ship this one out I’ll be creating some high quality video for the site.

Bollywood Math Problem II from Gina Kamentsky on Vimeo.

As far as what’s next, I’m going to try and create a bunch of new wall pieces and as soon as I’ve posted this, we’ll get started!