of mechanics and broken things in art

This post is a round-up of recent notes and sketches and models based on mechanics in art.

I'm trying to get a grip on using mechanical concepts in art, either directly as actual working mechanisms, or indirectly as.... well, indirectly as all those other things that don't actually work. I'm including some mechanical elements in a series of sculptures I'm presenting at the Generative Art Conference in Rome in December 2014. Earlier on this blog I posted the abstract for the paper.

Here's a review of works so far:


older work in clay



double spinning mechanism, clay



drawing of organic and mechanical qualities together



perhaps a little menacing?



pantograph mechanism entirely of clay



illustration of abstracted hinge design


Using actual mechanical parts
This aspect is straightforward, even though it is somewhat difficult to execute. For clay mechanisms, the parts must be loose enough around each other that they do not bind. A lidded jar is a mechanism; a stopper in a bottle neck is a mechanism. When uncoated (unglazed) clay touches uncoated clay, it does not stick. The more mechanically elaborate things I build use a small post in a hole for a pivot point. The white hinged boxes are nothing more than several pivoting points arranged vertically. The double ring example above is a little sleeve of clay fitted into a larger sleeve.

The mechanisms might fail because that loose fit between pieces of clay is spoiled by the warping tendency of clay. The mechanisms may also fail because it actually breaks, but only if I drop it!

The types of mechanism I'm planning to use in the upcoming sculptures are pivoting point, a hinge, and maybe some sliding parts.


Transforming mechanical illustrations
I am very motivated to include not only working mechanisms in the sculptures, but also mechanical concepts. This needs to be explained. The simplest way to use a mechanical concept is to feature an illustration of a mechanism. Already there is so much variety in the kinds of illustration that might be performed on ceramics! A further opportunity I have to elaborate on illustrations is whether the mechanism actually works. Depending on how savvy the viewer might be, she might realize that the depicted mechanism cannot possibly work as drawn. I plan to make such "impossible mechanisms" easy to spot.

As an extension of the 2D impossible drawings, I plan to build 3D mechanisms that are "impossible." Or simply do not work. The point I'm challenging myself with is to make it clear to the viewer that they are looking at a correct depiction of a mechanism that does not work: not an improperly made mechanism that ought to work. I can do this. I am certain of it.

As one means of depicting mechanical concepts as 2D artwork, I'm designing the illustrations as layers that will be offset or shown out of phase with one another. Which brings me to this photo:


rendering of working and non-working mechanisms

The "impossible" or "non-working" mechanisms in the drawing (shown there in light tan) have had some distortion performed on them. The distortions are quite simple in concept with regard to a drawing and the usual interface we have. Elements of the drawing were shifted in a direction, or scaled up or down, or skewed wider.


Combining working mechanisms with their related transformed drawings
This really challenges me to work with the transition between 3D and 2D. I am hoping to find a good solution by November, 2014.

One solution is to have a working mechanism blend one end with a non-working sculptural part. This possibility is shown at the bottom of the photo. In an actual sculpture, it is unclear whether the working mechanism will be unfairly constrained by the non-working parts. (In this particular mechanism, the expansion joints would likely not work because the two ends from the working domain are connected to the non-working domain in just the certain way that locks the working domain in that compressed position.)

However, many mechanisms that work could be connected to their mutated counterparts and still function.

Combining mechanisms with their drawings takes on this really challenging and fun aspect for me. I can depict a working mechanism making a transition between its 2D rendering to its working 3D form. I can depict a non-working mechanism from 2D to 3D as well. And as the hybrid shows, I can make the shift between working and non-working as well.

I'm very excited.

a brief explanation of my generative art paper, due early November

Everyone wants to know what 'generative art' is. I didn't know, either. In general, generative art will look to you like much of the abstract art that's been happening for decades. Your first reaction to art calling itself generative art is that the artist must have used a computer in some way, and quite possibly for everything. My explanation is that the artist has come up with ways to "defer" some part of the deciding or inspiration process, or part of the manufacture process to a machine, or program, or to chance. There is usually some form of repetition or iteration, given that computers do this so exactly and so well.

For my paper, my specific take on generative art is that I've designed a basic set of instructions for building sculptures by hand, much in the way you "build" dinner using a recipe or "build" a vacation using a map. In all of these, variations are likely and, as a Doctor might say, "not deleterious." The sculptures I will present as slides will be variations on that basic set of instructions. The important part of my presentation is to explain ahead of time which sorts of variations I've "allowed," and which sorts are either too small or too big to matter to me.

Variations that are too small, if I were using stew recipes as my art medium, might be that across six stew recipe variations I only change the number of pearl onions between 8-14. It is just too simple a variation, because in all likelihood, at five gallons of stew it just doesn't matter. Variations that are too big would change the recipe from stew to lasagna, cheesecake, and jello. These are certainly valid recipes, maybe even excellent recipes, but cannot be called "stew" anymore.

The substance of my paper will be describing how I made the instructions and how I chose the range of variations that suit me, and to show that these sorts of sculptures I'm making by hand don't have to happen in a computer.