Machine with Concrete - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | This machine was inspired by dreaming about gear ratios and considering the unexpected implications of exponential powers. Each worm/worm gear pair reduces the speed of the motor by 1/50th. Since there are 12 pairs of gears, the final speed reduction is calculated by (1/50)12. The implications are quite large. With the motor turning around 200 revolutions per minute, it will take well over two trillion years before the final gear makes but one turn. Given the truth of this situation, it is possible to do anything at all with the final gear, even embed it in concrete.
He and She Arthur Ganson 2016-12-08 | A playful collaboration with my wife and photographer Chehalis Hegner. It is the first of a series of 'kinetic photographs' to emerge from our life together.
The First Noble Truth - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2012-01-07 | The first noble truth of Buddhism states simply that suffering exists. This hand-crank operated machine is a playful poke at our human condition.
My Little Violin - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-11-10 | My Little Violin, 2009 by Arthur Ganson: It seems they were meant for one another...
Untitled Fragile Machine - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Long before making sculpture I dreamed of being a surgeon. The challenge of working so carefully with my hands was satisfied by the creation of very fragile machines. A machine with no utilitarian purpose, this is as close to drawing or painting as I can get. After giving myself a starting point, the machine grew organically. The actions and movement of parts are meaningfully trivial.
Machine with Wishbone - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Caught in a symbiotic relationship, both the wishbone and the machine are unable to manifest fully without the other. We drag our pasts with us and move according to unseen forces. More and more, we interface with the world through our mental and technological creations.
Two Cans from the Island of Taiwan - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A lighthearted play on the words 'two cans' (two bird sound canisters) and Toucans. The mechanism was carefully designed to stagger the sounds of each canister and to explore their capacity to make both very subtle chirps and loud squawks!
Thinking Chair - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | There is a small rock outcropping on a favorite trail in the woods near my studio. I often find myself deep in thought, walking in slow circles around the edge of this stone mound. For me it is a walking meditation, where each cycle finds me back in the same physical place but in a slightly different emotional place. One day I found a loose rock with a flat face and the idea for 'Thinking Chair', a self-portrait of this experience, came into being.
Tinguely in Moscow - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | An homage to Jean Tinguely, the foremost Swiss kinetic sculptor and my primary spiritual artistic mentor. While posing for the camera in Red Square in Moscow, wind produced by a tiny fan blows Mr. Tinguely's tie. Mechanical air baffles, also powered by the fan, move up and down to cause differing amounts of air to deflect the linkage that moves the tie.
The Dream - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | The first of what will be a series or machines that are directly inspired by my appreciation of plants and their beautiful complexity. This machine stands just over 3 meters and moves from heavy components near the base to moderately fine wire at top. It's offspring will be 3 times as tall and so fine at the tip that it is invisible to the naked eye. The dream is ongoing.
Space Saga Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Long before making kinetic sculpture I explored movement through the technique of animation. This simple machine was designed as a teaching tool for animators, where each frame is drawn on an index card and the movie is viewed by flipping through the cards. Editing is a simple task of adding or removing cards.
Small Tower of 6 Gears - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A little daydream about ratios, each gear is shifted left and right based on the rotation of the gear just below it. Odd tooth ratios result in fluid and organic movements. This piece is perhaps best seen as a prototype because the looseness of the movement, due to the relaxed tolerances of wire technology, obscures the potential of pure fluidity.
Machine with Roller Chain - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A simple exploration of the organic nature and complexity of roller chain. The shapes and patterns most likely will never repeat. Often, heavy industrial materials have a 'softer side' that is not revealed if they are used only as intended.
Machine with Oil - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Did you know that machines share all of the sensual passions and desires of humans? This one has the capacity to bathe itself in luscious, viscous 70 weight motor oil. For a machine, could there be anything more satisfying?
Meditation #3 - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | My first machines were all assembled with tin-lead solder, not knowing that this soft solder was structurally unsound and that in time, any part under significant tension would fall apart. Early fragile machines built this way contained many playful mechanical ideas that could no longer be appreciated because the machines themselves were no longer operative. The three meditation pieces are re-creations of particular ideas that I loved and wished to see again.
Meditation #2 - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | My first machines were all assembled with tin-lead solder, not knowing that this soft solder was structurally unsound and that in time, any part under significant tension would fall apart. Early fragile machines built this way contained many playful mechanical ideas that could no longer be appreciated because the machines themselves were no longer operative. The three meditation pieces are re-creations of particular ideas that I loved and wished to see again.
Meditation #1 - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | My first machines were all assembled with tin-lead solder, not knowing that this soft solder was structurally unsound and that in time, any part under significant tension would fall apart. Early fragile machines built this way contained many playful mechanical ideas that could no longer be appreciated because the machines themselves were no longer operative. The three meditation pieces are re-creations of particular ideas that I loved and wished to see again.
Margots Cat - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | This machine was inspired by watching a randomly shaped object bouncing off the surface of a slow moving, reciprocating and irregularly shaped piston head on the moon. Of course anything is possible in the virtual world of the computer. The doll house chair seems to be the perfect object to bounce nearly weightlessly over the unsuspecting cat. In this machine, the chair is passive and all motion is due to interference by the cat. The large disk at the back serves to both counterbalance the arm and give more mass to the chair itself. The motion of the chair is complex and will never repeat. Margot Clark was my wonderful and inspiring art history teacher at the University of New Hampshire. When she passed away she left a houseful of cats.
making wire gears - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | The wire-bending tool was designed to simplify and standardize the bending process. Each new gear is catalogued and the tool settings are recorded. Thus, it is easy to duplicate or modify any wire gear. The second tool is a simple device for centering the gear and spot-welding the spokes. Tool and jig making has always been an integral and joyful part of my sculpture making process.
Machine with Chair - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A simple ballet, originally conceived as one act in of an entire evening of machine theatre. The music was composed and performed by me.
The Great Race - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | An animation drawn on the edge of a paperback when I was a kid.
Knife Throwing Machine from Shadow of a Doubt - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A set piece with an instinct to kill. Created for a theatre production entitled 'Shadow of a Doubt', a collaboration with the Studebaker Movement Theatre of Boston in 1989. In the context of the play, a 'letter delivery machine' drew Dick, the protagonist, to stage center and directly into the pathway of the throwing knife. The attempt to kill him was foiled however when the letter fallsl to the floor a moment before the knife was thrown. Bending down to pick it up the letter, the knife flew harmlessly over Dick's head and into the wall behind him.
Machine with Housefly - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | All movement is inherently interesting to me. Here, playing with the gesture of the housefly as it buzzes around a light and proposing a possible mechanical system to create such movement.
Homage to Tinguelys Homage à Marcel Duchamp - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | A double homage to Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely. The machine mimics the formal design of Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. In the place of the Bride is an image of Tinguely's own homage to Duchamp, and the mechanical elements of my machine loosely recall the Bachelors in Duchamp's original work. The machine was created while meditating on the works of these two masters.
Machine with Grease - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Inspired as a response to a friend's inquiry as to whether or not I would contribute a piece to an exhibition of erotic art. At the time I had none, but this machine came to mind immediately. The grease is a mixture of oils and refinery by-products. When running it is in a continual state of ecstasy.
Machine with Featherduster - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-09 | Well meaning but extremely inefficient, this machine was the result of a self imposed challenge to make a piece in a day. The sloppiness of the mechanical system was the result of many rushed decisions, but is the spirit that defines the gesture.
Machine with Fabric - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | Playful moments offer the chance to see past definitions that structure how we think about and see the world. While on a search at a fabric store, looking for material for some other project, I came across a bit of blue material that took hold of me and asked me to move it slowly. It is possible to transform anything and all definitions are constructions of the mind.
Faster! - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | This machine was a response to a call by the World Sculpture Racing Society in Boston to make sculpture that would exhibited on the street and in the context of a road race where the 'best' work would be determined by race rules (win, place, and show) and not subjectivity. The cast hand is my own and the pen, controlled by three cams (x, y and z axis), moves in three dimensions and writes the word "faster!" on an index card while being pushed down the street. The faster the cart is pushed, the faster it writes. Warning, an out of control feedback loop between creator and creation can result in dangerously fast speeds and certain death.
Eye Transformation animation - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | A little animation drawn on the pages of a paperback when I was a kid.
Machine with Eggshells - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | This machine was borne out of the impulse to play and the accidental discovery of the sonic potential of the eggshell. For me it is both a farcical meditation on the complexity of complex gear ratios and a machine for sending a strange and unique 'Morse code' message to the far reaches of the universe.The rhythm of clicks is based on the ratios of the numbers of teeth on the five main gears multiplied together. (The number of revolutions each gear must make before the pattern begins to repeat is stamped below each gear.)
Dododecapede - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | A racing sculpture, this machine/creature gets its name from the fact that it has 24 cams and legs. (If dodeca- means 12, then do-dodeca must be 24) Extremely heavy and made of welded steel, the longest race successfully completed was one mile.
Corys Yellow Chair - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2009-01-06 | When is now? I constructed this machine when, in my mind's eye I saw my son's little yellow chair explode with infinite speed, travel to the far reaches of the universe and slowly come to complete stillness. Then, beginning to collapse slowly at first, they reached infinite speed at the moment of becoming a complete chair again. They stopped instantaneously, for just a fleeting moment, and then exploded! This physical manifestation, constructed of a variety of very down-to-earth materials, is an attempt to capture the essence of this vision. The chair is about 4 1/2" tall and is constructed of very light materials. The driving motor and some mechanism is hidden behind the backboard. All 6 arms are driven from one sprocket top and center. This machine lives now at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA for anyone wishing to see it.
The Busi/ynessman - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | Before designing this mechanism, the overall shape, scale and action were decided upon. With initial conditions set, the main mechanism grew organically. The joyful challenge here was to consider, with each step, that every bit of wire had both a utilitarian function and an aesthetic weight.
Machine with Chinese Fan - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | A simple system employing a 4 bar linkage and a Chinese Fan. Intentionally neither animal nor plant, how does it feel to open out to the world? How does it feel to close to the world? When exhibited, this machine expresses both feelings by opening, pausing for enough time so that that moment is fully past, and then closing.
Child Watching Ball - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | Based on an earlier machine constructed in college but which has fallen into disrepair, the simple desire to have a child's eyes track a moving blue ball resulted in a strangely complicated mechanism. The design of the most critical part of this mechanism was arrived at suddenly, with no clear pathway. How it happened will always be a mystery to me.
Machine with Cat Whiskers - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | The most fragile of a series of delicate machines thus far. So much before us is both terrifyingly and beautifully fragile. The construction of such machines is a wonderful challenge and asks me to be aware of everything, and especially my breathing. The cat whiskers were found by my upstairs neighbor and sat on my desk for months before they found their home.
Brownian Rice - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | The initial impulse was to mimic ocean waves moving up through a beach, but the mechanical action caused the sand to collect on one side. Abandoning this idea, it was found that staggering the direction of the 'circulators' created a different and more nuanced feeling. Rice was more interesting than sand. The title plays with 'Brownian Motion', the property of molecules in a liquid or gaseous state to always be moving about.
Machine with Ball Chain - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-29 | A relative of Machine with Roller Chain. This material offers other associations and enters more deeply into the organic realm. One piece of 'ball chain' circulates as an endless loop with enough 'slop' as to be interesting.
Machine with Artichoke Petal #2 - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-26 | An attempt to create another petal like that of Artichoke #1 resulted in this monk-like shape. The new machine was inspired by memories of the Borobudur temple in Indonesia where a series of circular terraces invite one to a slow and deliberate walking meditation.
Machine with Artichoke Petal #1 - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-26 | A failed attempt to cook an artichoke uncovered in a microwave oven resulted in this little withered petal that caught my heart. It moves carefully and with determination.
Another Housefly - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-26 | To be honest, I never really liked Housefly because it made too much noise! This is a rethinking of the original mechanism that takes into account more aspects of the fly. The linkage arms which move the base of the spring-wire purposely mimic the front legs of the housefly as she cleans herself.
Machine with Abandoned Doll - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-26 | Stopping to view the ocean from Highway #1 on the coast of California just south of San Francisco, I found this doll lying in a trash pile by the side of the road. I picked it up and immediately visualized this machine. "As above, so below."- this recognition of the parallel nature of our spirit and body helps define the formal structure of the machine. The intellect may be strong and the adult tormented as a result of it, but the child within dreams innocently.
Machine with 23 Scraps of Paper - Arthur Ganson Arthur Ganson 2008-11-26 | I often make a series of machines based on the same idea, exploring different mechanical solutions and designs. This was the second in the series and the first to use oscillating off-center wheels as cams to drive the control arms. Each scrap is activated in two places. The mind is very acute and recognizes instantly the manner in which energy flows through a system. Here, the center point always leads the peripheral point. This is vitally important in allowing the scrap to feel as if it is flying.
