prosthetic knowledge

Rocking Knit 

A rocking chair-powered knitting machine that can make winter hats, put together for ECAL’s exhibition called “Low Tech Factory” by Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex. Video embedded below:

ECAL Low-Tech Factory/Rocking-Knit from ECAL on Vimeo.

“Rocking-Knit” is a new interpretation of the rocking chair. It offers its user productive moments of relaxation. The to-and-fro movement of this armchair knits hats for the winter and requires no exertion whatsoever.

You can find out more about the exhibition at ECAL here

Windswept by Charles Sowers 

Art installation fixed outside a gallery’s wall, displaying natural flow and turbulence of the wind - via dezeen:

Hundreds of spinning blades reveal the invisible patterns of the wind in American artist Charles Sowers’ kinetic installation on the facade of the Randall Museum in San Francisco.

The installation, titled Windswept, consists of 612 rotating aluminium weather vanes mounted on an outside wall. As gusts of wind hit the wall, the aluminium blades spin not as one but independently, indicating the localised flow of the wind and the way it interacts with the building.

“Our ordinary experience of wind is as a solitary sample point of a very large invisible phenomenon,” said Sowers. “Windswept is a kind of large sensor array that samples the wind at its point of interaction with the Randall Museum building and reveals the complexity and structure of that interaction.”

You can find out more at Dezeen here, with photos and a video of the work in action.

The Humble Velocipede 

Kickstarter project to produce small handmade kinetic art / walking machines made from bamboo - video embedded below: 

The Humble Velocipede is a small-scale evolution of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest kinetic sculpture. This meditative toy is designed to scuttle over countertops and coffee tables. Its stride is human powered, but the Velocipede really holds its own on shallow inclines.  

This project started when we built a life-size plywood Strandbeest. The big machine was gorgeous, but bulky and inconvenient to transport. Curious about what it would look like as a toy, we built one just for fun. It turned out better than any of us expected, so we refined our design for production. Instead of shrinking down Jansen’s original, we recast that organic appeal for a domestic space. We think we’ve made a playful desktop sprite that is as captivating around the house as Jansen’s are on the beach. 

The walking mechanism behind the toy is inherently complex. With production in mind, we made our design as simple as possible …

More Here

Hope and Dream 

Kinetic 3D light sculpture by Makoto Tojiki. Via DesignBoom:

artist makoto tojiki, developed ‘hope and dream’, an illuminated, kinetic sculptural installation for luxury beauty brand clé de peau beauté as part of their ‘l’art de la radiance’ exhibition for the brand’s 30th anniversary celebration at artistree in island east, hong kong. the of yokohama, japan-based sculptor created his work, comprised of nine units, to span 7 x 20 meters of the darkened gallery space. the piece begins with a young girl releasing a bird from her outstretched hands. as the expanse of moving light continues, each of the additional components picture the animal in a distinct moment of flight.

‘hope and dream’ is an expansion upon his ‘no shadow’ series which appreciates both the presence and absence of light in each work in order to create fleeting, cinematic-like actualizaitons of figures in a three-dimensional, brightened forms.

‘sometimes an object appears differently from how we remember it to be. yet, this is often not because the object itself has changed, but it is caused by a change in the observer’s perspective. this change may also be related to, and expressive of, the object’s essence. my interest is in exploring, ‘when, and for what reason,
does a person’s perception of an object change?’ through my work, I seek to stimulate how people see objects. by extracting its essence, I seek to express that which lies at an object’s core.’ -makoto tojiki

More Here

Spazio Elastico by Gianni Colombo (via Triangulation Blog)

Triangulation Blog has a few photos of works by Gianni Colombo, an installation Kinetic Artist. Why I have never heard of him (especially at art school) I don’t know, but his works look interesting. [Link]

Kinetic Wall: A Vertical Lake Building Facade via Design Fetish

I would love to check this out:

International design studio Urban Art Projects puts the soothing effects of water into an unlikely place; the side of Brisbane, Australia’s airport car park.

This project is being developed with artist Ned Kahn. It is called a “Kinetic Wall,” and it will essentially be an eight-story-tall public art installation. Seen from the outside, the installation will look like a vertical body of water, complete with gentle waves and natural movement. From the inside of the building, the movement of the facade will create beautiful patterns in sunlight on the interior surfaces.

The effect is created with 250,000 aluminum panels which are loosely suspended so as to move gently with the wind.

It also helps provide passive cooling and ventilation for the car park, cutting down on energy costs and keeping the building more comfortable all year long. The new parking garage, complete with the unique facade, will be completed in late 2011.

Katharine Harvey, Midway V, 2008, acrylic on board, 45 x 66 inches

via iheartmyart

BBC News - Interactive art on display at the Kinetica Art Fair

Artworks that move, glow and react to human movement and sound are on display at the Kinetica Art Fair in London.

The show aims to push the boundaries between science, art and engineering.

Among the exhibits are holographic light beings, robots and a milk float orchestra.

The Kinetica Art Fair is on at the Ambika P3 space in Marylebone, London until 7 February 2010.

Cannot embed video - link here.