Applied Kinetic Arts

My LAST penguin, Penguin III. 

Typewriter parts. 

This is the third video segment from the special feature included on the Blu-ray release of the movie Hugo. I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the feature which is titled The Mechanical Man and the Heart of Hugo. In this clip, I say a few words about the questions that automata raise in our minds. Other speakers in the clip include Martin Scorsese himself and artist Thomas Kuntz, whose incredible automata art is also shown in various moments in the clip.

I was interviewed recently for one of the bonus features for the DVD release of the movie Hugo. A team  associated with Paramount came to my studio to film an hour-long interview. Many of the questions I fielded were about the history of automata. This naturally lead to questions about connections between the automaton in Hugo and any historical automata. As it turns out, the automaton in Hugo is closely tied to a real automaton.

Here is a short clip from the special bonus featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo. In this segment, I say a bit about the famous Maillardet drawing automaton at The Franklin Institute. I had the pleasure of seeing the automaton in action during a visit there a few years ago. I think my reverence for the masterpieces comes through in the clip.

I particularly love how my segment transitions to Ben Kingsley’s. I do hope that I set him up well.

Here is a web page where you can see the video of Dug North speaking about the Maillardet automaton.

The DVD release of the Martin Scorsese film Hugo was yesterday. I’ve been waiting for this day for months. It’s not just that I want to see the film again. I do, but there’s more to it than that. This marks my debut as an official talking head on the subject of automata!

Last summer I had the pleasure of being interviewed for one of the bonus features for the Blu-ray release of the movie Hugo. A delightful team of four film industry professionals associated with Paramount arrived at my studio in Lowell, Massachusetts. They filmed an hour-long interview with me among my assorted possessions. They asked questions about the history of automata, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Hugo, Georges Méliès, magic, contemporary automata, and the growing interest in automata among the public.

Here is a short clip from the special bonus featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo. In this segment, I say a few words about why I think people are fascinated by automata of all sorts. Here is another spot where you can watch my on-screen interview for the Hugo DVD.

I am very happy to announce that I was selected as one of several artists and musicians to receive the Paul Dresher Ensemble residency for 2012.

The ensemble is opening their doors for four weeks intervals over the course of the year. Residents have been invited to work on their proposed projects in the custom fabrication shop and recording studio.

My residency begins in October and focuses on the fabrication of a machine that converts real time and archived weather data from satellites into audible sounds allowing us to hear the change in our climate.

-Stay Tuned

All over coffee from the SF Gate has featured the RGR in it’s latest comic strip.

-Stay Tuned

Sometimes the wiring can be the trickiest part. I don’t usually have to draw it out before hand, but this one required it.

Feast your eyes on the meticulous craftsmanship invested into this kinetic sculpture titled Steampunk Voyager. The piece — made of copper, brass, and polished steel — appears to represent a mechanized Viking longboat. There are lots of juicy mechanical elements including hinges, rivets, flywheels, chain drives, pulleys, crankshafts, linkages, and a flyball governor. I don’t think it is actually steam powered, but no matter; it is just gorgeous!

[ Thanks Christoph! ]

With the film Hugo racking up a total of 5 wins at the 2012 Oscar Awards, the public seems more interest in automata than ever. Here’s a great news clip from NJToday Online titled ‘Mechanical Dolls Like Ones in ‘Hugo’ Displayed at Morris Museum.’ Indeed they are! The museum is home to a huge collection of automata originally owned by Murtough D. Guinness. Guinness — an heir to the brewery of the same name — collected over 700 of these fantastic mechanical pieces throughout his life and donated them to the museum. While they may not have a drawing automaton quite as sophisticated as the one in the movie, what they do have will still delight and astound any visitor.

Here is where you can learn more about the Guinness collection of automata at the Morris Museum.

Working on a possible new direction. Infinity stack of angry faces?

I’m pretty excited about this little guy so far.  The machine shown on the left of the image makes him appear to struggle feebly within his punching bag confinement.

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

The Huffington Post published an article online yesterday about the automaton in the Martin Scorsese film Hugo and its connection to a real automaton now housed at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The article covers the fascinating journey of this remarkable machine, created around 1800 my the Swiss watchmaker, Henri Maillardet. The story of the real automaton parallels that of the one in author Brian Selznick’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, to a remarkable degree — right down to the automaton identifying its lost lineage by writing a message. This really happened!

Here is a link to the full article from The Huffington Post titled Franklin Institute Automaton Has Link To ‘Hugo’.

I’ll be showing my piece “The Race” at Unfinished Projects over at MotoSF in San Francisco this Saturday Feb 25th (6-11).  I’ll also have one of my trophy head pieces “Heavy Metal” on display.

275 8th Street, 2nd Floor

Here is a link to the Facebook event for more details:

http://www.facebook.com/events/156994474411347/

Check out this fascinating piece from artist Jim Jenkins titled A World Around. The piece is a motorized rolling ball sculpture with illuminated text elements. Jenkins uses an Arduino microcontroller to orchestrate various actions (i.e. the motors and lights) through a two minute cycle.

From the video description:

A track is mounted on a motorized base. As the base moves it causes a small globe to make irregular orbits around a yellow house. Intermittently illuminating on the interior walls of the house are the words “YOU, ME, US THEM.”

See more kinetic sculpture by Jim Jenkins on his web site.

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.

If you didn’t catch it yesterday, Boing Boing posted an online interview with the legendary John Gaughan yesterday. Gaugh is the mechanical mastermind behind many famous magical effects and illusions. He is also an expert on various forms of automata and has a collection of important historical pieces and recreations. The interview spends a good deal of time discussing The Turk — the infamous chess-playing automaton — an authentic recreation of which (see below) sits among John Gaughan’s massive assortment of magical possessions.

Among his many automata treasures is a mechanical life-size figure of Harry Houdini who will sign his name on a piece of paper (see video below).

Here is the full interview with John Gaughan on Boing Boing.

I have two Proxxon benchtop tools — the table saw and miter saw. These tools are of excellent quality and just the right size for an automata-maker or model maker. I have had my eye on Proxxon’s bench sander for quite a while. At long last, a good Samaritan has taken the time to review it on Amazon! I’m going to quote from that review here, because it is some of the best information I’ve found about his tool so far:

From one Amazon review:

After looking for a disc sander for model hobby needs, I finally settled down on this disc sander. While a bit spendy, the quality more than justified the purchase. I will have this tool for decades; and I’m not having to return some other tool. This is the first product I have purchased in quite a while WITHOUT a tag saying “made in china”. It’s about time.

I went with this model because of significant problems I’d encounter with all the other products available:

• All the other disc sanders were too big

• They didn’t have a slow enough “slow” speed setting, or no speed adjustment at all
• None in this size had a vacuum connection
• The other one from micromark had a foot-pedal from a sewing machine to set the speed (microlux)
• Low quality and difficult adjusting sanding table/gauge
• Overall quality factors

After receiving this product and trying it out, wow. This is a quality machine. It hogs out balsa and light ply at a crawl when I want, and eats it away when I want it to. The dust vacuum port is very effective (and entirely necessary). This is the perfect complement to my scroll saw. The table for resting the wood is firm, easily adjusted, precise and accurate. The variable speed control is extremely smooth. The silicone faced disc makes for easy changes of the sand paper. I am producing model parts at a very fast rate, I cant wait to get started on the next build.

The reviewer goes on to say that this sander is for specifically model and miniature makers. Don’t expect it to take the place of a 10 or 16″ disk sander for a full size woodworking shop. That said, the Proxxon Disc Sander is of a size and quality that no other tool in the category can match.

Here’s what the sander looks like when mounted to the bench in the other orientation:

Here’s a link to a lot more info on Proxxon Disc Sander.

The following video is from Love+ Light, an exhibit at the Loveland, Colorado Feed and Grain building Feb. 10th 2012. I’d like to thank my good friend Jon Gacke for the video edit. The show was organized by Megan Tracy and Carrie Johansing-Heintzleman featuring over 30 artisans. The building has been secured by artspace.org and will be a new resource to the artistic community of Loveland. At this point it is a 120 year old grain processing facility that has never been modernized. It’s an incredible time capsule. I chose the particular room to show in because of the markings on the columns, the machine, and the abundance of grain chutes. More information can be found at loveandlightloveland.com for the show, and lovelandfeedandgrain.org for the building.

The other two images are of a current project on my workbench.

Look out Marfa, and Alpine, Tx. I am on my way!!! next week, the 27th Feb… Call Me!

Here is a film that was originally created as a school program back in the 1980s. The 8 minutes of film show the variety and complexity found in antique automata. Examples include magicians, acrobats, clowns, musicians, and the three masterpieces by Pierre Jaquet-Droz — the Musician, the Writer, and the Draftsman. Enjoy!

Check out this nifty “penny toy” acrobat dating to around 1900. The piece was brought in to The House of Automata for repair and is quite rare. I love how such a simple mechanism can produce such an enchanting object.

Here is a new piece by Tom Haney based on the Kahlil Gibran quote, “When I wrote on my door: “Leave your traditions outside, Before you come in,” Not a soul dared to visit me or open my door.” The motor-driven figure slowly opens the door, peers out, then retreats the way he came.

The piece is part of the 100 Artists Show At Mary Lou Zeek Gallery in Salem, OR. All the pieces in the show are up for auction and the proceeds will be donated to a local charity. The bidding is done by phone only. As of last weekend this piece was up to just over $1000. It retails for far more than that; this is a rare chance for those seeking to acquire a Tom Haney automaton. Bidding on this piece ends at 5pm February 24th. The number to call is 503-581-3229.

You can get more information about the automaton and see video of it in action on Tom Haney’s blog.

Here is where you can get more information about the show 100 Artists Show At Mary Lou Zeek Gallery.

Instructables just posted a nice little interview I did with them last week.  It’s pretty general in scope until the end when we get into details about my “Quicksilver Scooter” project that I did a few years ago.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Featured-Author-nemomatic/

My latest figure is for a psychiatrist/collector of mine. He wanted a man running with a fearful look on his face. Having never made a running figure before, I think it turned out pretty well. The piece is 9″ x 15″ x 5″.

Here is his body in progress.

His hands.

Ready for assembly.

His head. I tried to make his hair look like it was being blown back.

Final shot.

A close up of his head, he even has teeth.

Here is a wonderful video featuring an assortment of automata that are part of the collection of The Modern Automata Museum located in Montopoli di Sabina, Rieti, Italy. The film includes a commentary (in Italian) by the director of the museum about automata and his vision for the museum.

Learn more about The Modern Automata Museum on their website.

I was excited, but not surprised, to learn recently that India predates China by many years for their mastery of iron work. I had always thought that the Iron age had begun further east around  700 or 800 BC.

As it turns out  large-scale iron artifacts have been found dating back to 1000 BC in central and southern India. This suggests that the smiths, in order to produce work of this magnitude, must have already been experimenting for some time previous to this date. It is even possible that they were working with advanced iron smelting techniques as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century BC.

After ten or so years of learning the physical techniques of blacksmithing, my interest in the history of iron working has really begun to grow.

I’ll be spending the next two months traveling in India to meet with and hopefully work with as many smiths as I can.

Check back to see posts as I travel from the East to the West Coast.

-Stay Tuned

Magician Brad Henderson from Austin Texas recently spotted this soon-to-be released toy automaton. The SketRobo is a small robot capable of drawing with pen and paper. OK…so we’ve seen automata that have been doing this for hundreds of years. What makes the SketRobo different is that it can change what it draws based on what it can see at any given moment.

One model draws images stored in memory. Another model has an on-board camera and facial recognition technology allowing it to draw portraits on the spot. Now that is a new twist on this old theme! The SketRobo should be available in the fall of 2012 — retailing for around $60 for the no-camera version and about $100 for the one with the camera. It’s being marketed as a way to teach kids how to draw, but I think we will see it put to many creative uses.

It is a remarkable coincidence that a drawing automaton product should follow so closely behind the release of the film Hugo, which featured just such a machine. It seems we are as fascinated today by the idea of a drawing machine as they were 200 years ago when audiences first saw Maillardet’s drawing automaton. I wonder what he would have thought about the facial recognition technology?

Tinplate Girl made a special Valentine’s Day gift using the various metalworking techniques she demonstrates on her awesome instructional site. Tinplate Dad got into the act too. He made a small kinetic sculpture you’ll see in the second half of the video. Both projects incorporate tinplate, brass wire, a bit of wood, soldering, and mechanical fastening. No glue was used!

Here is where you can read about and see more images of these two tinplate Valentine’s Day projects.

Hunter S. Thompson shooting a typewriter.

If anyone is wondering how Porcupine chain is born, this is it.

Renowned automata artist Paul Spooner will talk about his work at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society in Falmouth, Cornwall on February 16th at 7.30pm.

From the event description:

Paul’s career as an automata maker (“making mechanical jokes for people with short attention spans”) has included commissions for the Science Museum and Louis Vuitton, as well as a television programme, Mechanisms, on Channel 4. His work combines humour and an obsessive attention to detail with delightful and intriguing mechanisms. Every now and then, he puts together a dossier on his career so far and shows it to a group of people hoping that somebody will be able to spot any kind of progress or system. The last time this happened at The Poly was about eight years ago. Let’s have another try.

Here is where you can learn more about the talk by Paul Spooner and book tickets if you will be in the area.

Here’s a recently published book that provides detailed instruction on carving faces in wood. Written by the renowned caricature carver, Harold Enlow, the book is directed at the caricature carver, but is a solid foundation for realistic carving as well. The author provides photos and step-by-step instruction on how to carve some of those tricky areas of the face such as the eyes, mouth, and ears. In addition to covering these specific parts, a few complete example faces are also included. This book is a valuable reference that comes highly rated!

Here is where you can get Carving Faces Workbook: Learn to Carve Facial Expressions and Characteristics.

I’ve been kind of blowing my mind on this little machine lately. Ultimately it will drive six spring loaded pistons by way of strands of beading wire. The difficulty is in aligning all the little wheels and making sure there is little to no friction. The ornate brass bits are faux wax cups from a chandelier. They function as the drive gears.

The Barnacle Press has posted a set of mechanical paper toy plans created by Dan Rudolph for the LA Times back in 1922 and 1923. The plans show you how to make moving toys by cutting out and articulating the parts of various cartoon characters. Shown here is an example of the plans, this one titled The Village Blacksmith. There are over 25 plans in all including sports figures, tradesmen, kids, and assorted animals. This is a great resource and looks like they would be a lot of fun to make.

Here is where you can get these free papercraft mechanical toy plans.

[ Thanks Brian! ]

Protected for years in its original shipping crate, this early 20th century window display advertises “Tiny Tabs Indigestion Tablets”. The mechanical sign features a clockwork motor that allows the center body portion to spin and the ball on top to swing. When the swinging ball approaches the upright post on the left, the string gets caught. The ball is carried around the post, wrapping the string with it. The string then unwinds, freeing the ball, allowing it to swing again. I’ve seen a clock that uses a similar principle as a regulating pendulum.

From the eBay description:

Measuring 21″ wide at the base by 29 1/4″ tall to the top of the spinning wood balls, this early 20th century, Advertising Automaton advertises for “Tiny Tabs Indigestion Tablets.” After some searching on the net I found that this product was made by the Peace Remedy Company, which was a small Brooklyn NY Company. There is very little on the net about this company never mind another advertising sign of any sort. The advertisement of a cartoon character, with a Tablet Body is very close to the “Speedy Alka Seltzer” character who came later.

The seller has a much longer description and a ton of interesting photos of the Tiny Tabs Indigestion Tablets mechanical window display.

As an artist interested in things like movement, energy,  and sound it is always inspiring to look at Rubin Margolin’s work.

No CAD, no CNC, mostly handmade, always captivating.

He is undeniably a master.

- Stay Tuned

MSN recently produced a little travel segment about Oakland.  I was asked to show Tanya Holland of Brown Sugar Kitchen around my studio and then take a little tour around town.  She then returned the favor in her own segment.  Check it out!

http://rediscover.msn.com/city/32243562/video/22

Remember that insane music video by the band OK Go in which a massive chain reaction accompanies the song? Well, they’ve done it again, only this time the band plays a much more active part. In fact, strapped inside of a Chevy sonic, they ARE the reaction in this chain of events as they drive the tricked-out car through a musically rigged maze. These guys are wildly creative and quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

From the video description:

OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording.

You can learn more at Chevy’s Let’s Do This site and at the band’s web site: http://www.okgo.net. My hat is off to you, gentlemen.

[ via Gizmodo ]

I am having a busy and fun February.
I’m Showing in Fort Collins and Loveland Colorado, as well as Marietta, Georgia, and Lowell, Massachusetts this month.
Here are a few images of new, smaller works. And a couple of shots from recent Opiate Gallery shows in Fort Collins.

A Neon sculpture “For the Love of Light”

Some bubbling night lights

An American Beauty Desk Lamp

This is my wife’s birthday present. It’s a blind bunny cuz she had laser eye surgery last week. She was able to open her eyes just long enough to look at it.

Here is a new article in Antiques & Auction News about the automata exhibition currently on display at the International Terminal of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

From the automata article:

The history of automata (plural) parallels humanity’s undiminished and continuous quest to create an object that has the appearance of moving like a human or an animal. The word is derived from the Greek automatos, meaning “self-moving.”

The article describes the exhibit its relation to the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments & Automata at the Morris Museum. The exhibit itself is open to all visitors, ticketed and non-ticketed.

I’ve put it off for a long time now but I finally moved my mailing list over to Mail Chimp. If you’re not already on it, please consider signing up. I promise to use it sparingly, and only to announce things I think you’ll want to hear about like new work, shows, etc.
Thanks!

Check out this great video featuring a selection of kinetic sculptures from eda taşlı.

The Science section of the ABC news blog posted today what science fiction, alternative news and other fringe blogs have been posting (much more thoroughly) for several weeks. A mysterious, large, round object was found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea surrounded by details that are quite puzzling.

It is big.

It has what looks like skid marks stretching for many meters beside it. (As if it traveled across the sea bed before coming to a halt.)

And, there is another , smaller round object near by also with skid marks pointing in the same direction.

Here is an interview with the captain of the salvage crew that found it.

Between this and the curious sounds that I posted about being emanated from various parts of the globe, 2012 is shaping up to be an interesting year so far!

-Stay Tuned

Wanting to come up with a simple and inexpensive project teachers could use to teach their students some aspect of technology, Instructables user biochemtronics came up with this hand-cranked paper clip machine.

From the creator’s comments:

For educators this project is a great way to teach students the physics of mechanical machines including cranks, levers, fulcrum points, rotary and linear motion all while stirring their curiosity and developing their mechanical aptitude.

What he has really done is conceive of an inexpensive platform for building machines that requires some scraps of wood, paperclips, pliers, and a small drill. The result is not only educational but beautiful as well. Ingenious.

Here is the Instructable the hand-cranked paper clip machine system.

[ Thanks Aaron and Ron! ]

This video is the first mechanical test of a little climbing monster piece I’m working on.

One way to make a living as a professional artist is to apply for things such as grants, residencies and public commissions. This can be a very competitive and daunting process as you might imagine. There are, after all, seven billion people on the planet guaranteeing an overwhelming number of artists all vying for these opportunities.

Here are a few things that I have learned from the perpetual application process I have been engaged in for the last year:

1. You will be rejected far more times than you will be accepted. This should be obvious.

2. The longer the rejection letter the further you made it in their selection process. I have seen enough of these now to tell the difference between an obligatory blow-off statement from a committee that doesn’t care and one that was written with regret over having to cut you loose.  (See below for my latest rej letter. The writer seemed  sincere about my not making the final cut and encouraged me to apply for future opportunities at his organization.)

3. There are an infinite number of reasons (other that the content & quality of your proposal) why you will be rejected. These may or may not include political squabbling on the part of the selection committee,  demographic issues, or any other reason you can’t think of.

The bottom line is that in order to participate in this kind of opportunity mining  you just need to keep applying with a bulletproof attitude. Its a numbers game; The more times you apply, the more you increase you overall chances of getting something.

Good luck and

-Stay Tuned

Rejection letter from Eyebeam:

“Hello, 

Well, it’s finally done. I have to say that I’m rather pleased with the results. As most of these projects go, they often turn into an ‘albatross’ and seem to take forever. I’m often to the point where I really hate them after a bit, but alas, that’s the creative process.

Often times, I need a motivator to finally get the piece done and often times that’s a gallery show. So here it is in all its glory at a great little gallery – the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery – www.askanita.com in the hood – Northeast Minneapolis.

Well, about the piece-
As you can see from the construction, it is much more than just a cello. Everything else is fabricated with the exception of an old metal chaffing dish for decoration and some store bought carved wood applique’s.  The hull is bentwood pine over pine with a fair amount of wood putty and coats of paint. The masts are welded steel tubing painted a nice cocoa brown and distressed (as is the rest of the piece to unify it). The sails are steel with a thin sheet of decorative fabric. One of the hardest things to do was to distress that beautiful fabric since it was just so pretty right out of the store. It should be – 36 bucks a yard. Good thing the previous first pattern didn’t work out and this fabric was half price after Christmas. Also note that the figurehead on the bow is the ‘Christ’ from a crucifix and the child on top of the “Poop Deck” was a cherub (I cut off the wings- just a little too cutesy).

So, you got the basics. Now, what is the damn thing about? Well, I might have mentioned before that one of the basis of the Flying Dutchman legend was a Dutch captain by the name of Bernard Fokke. Granted, this is not the only start of the legend, but it is the only one I’ve found based on a real person. Besides, the name is conveniently a lot like my own. In fact ‘Fokke’ was a man’s first name (which like a lot of names, became the last name) and ‘Fokken’ means ‘son of’ just like Petersen is the son of Peter like it is in Norway. Anyway, he’s said to made a ‘faustian’ deal with the devil because he was able to make the trip between Holland to Java incredibly fast.

So, I decided to use this legend as a starting point. Frankly, the idea of a cello as ship came organically to me since I just happen think they look like ships as is. I did use the framing of the title as a way to look at other things that stick in my mind.

I thought it was a good way to talk about the roots of modern international trade-specifically how it changes societies and culture by the exchange of goods and just plain bumping into each other. So I likened the cello to the ‘high’ culture of the 17th century and the post renaissance ‘modern age’ of Des Cartes and Newton and far from the superstitions of sea monsters at the edge of the world. The sails are ‘fancy Dutch tablecloths’ – a metaphor for all the finery of the ‘Dutch Golden Age’. The dark side of this wealth and finery was that there were lands and cultures that were being ravished and robbed of their resources and people. 

Cultural interaction makes strange bedfellows. Conversely, some cultures benefited from western riches, tools and technology that helped their ports grow into power houses. Some dictators were overthrown and some were created.

I think that the title of the piece “Song of the Flying Dutchman” caries with it the beauty and romance of the sea. Music also references the complexity in timing for navigating latitude and longitude at that time.  In the end, I like the the idea that cultural interaction and trade is complicated and in essence never ‘makes port’ to come down on one side or the other.

Just like the Flying Dutchman.