Project Description
This project is a physicalization of neural network and neural impulsion. It is basically built based on a metal cube frame, two 15m red El wires, and 6 solenoids. I am a fan of giving material a sense of “alive”, so I made simple, subtle, and random movement just like they are alive.
My inspiration was from the kinetic work “Autonomous System” by artist Ralf Baecker. He used multiple string and motors with random movement to create this “line-chart-like” sculpture. The red strings and its small-scale movement reminded me of blood and neurons. Also, I want to make some winding, captivity style sculpture, and that pushed me to make this project.
Perspective & Context
From the previous kinetic art readings, art works from Len lye attracted me a lot. I like he fully make use of mechanisms but also perfectly hidden from the surface, creating the alive style machine art.
The style of machine art is a reflection on human-machine relationship. I like the way Len lye treat machines — making them alive. Like mentioned in the article “The Phantom of Machine Art”, the practicality of the machine itself is not shown in his work, but the aesthetics of the movement of the machine itself are shown.
Thus, with the concept of neural impulsion in my mind, I decided to make the mechanism as invisible as possible. I want the audience to focus on the movement itself but not the machine itself.
Development & Technical Implementations
My first sketch of this project:
Shelf & El Wire
I put 7 rubber bands on each side of the metal frame to hold the wires. I bought 4 El wires (15m each) and then I end up using 2 (I feel it was dense enough at last).
Initially, I did not have an idea on how to place the wires in the frame, then I decided to get them through the rubber bands randomly and see what happens. After the first wire was finished placing on the frame, I saw a few parts with denser wires, thus I decided to make them to some nodes.
Mechanism:
Initially, I was planning to use servos to create the pulling movements. But Eric suggest using solenoid since it has a fast, vertical pulling force, and can also generate pleasant sound composition if I make good use. But when I tried with the solenoid handed out in class, it cannot pull down when it was put force initially. Then I bought 6 stronger solenoids.
Solenoids are often use horizontally for door locks, but in my case I need to place it horizontally, which means I ne ed to make little holding shelves for each of them. I designed the shelves and asked advice from my friend who is taking Industrial Design class this semester.
Fishing wire & Circuit
I used fishing wires to pull the nodes, as they are pretty invisible and strong.
My circuit initially was a total mess and hard to see what was going on. (Thank to Marcela’s kind help for teaching me how to restructure my circuit!!)
Composition
The last but also a very important part was the coding part — how to make the movement in an unpredictable but diverse style. With the suggestions from Eric and Gottfried, I code it with more randomness(how long it last when it reach the highest frequency/how long it reaches the most frequency stage everytime)
Presentation
During the presentation and IMA show, I heard mostly positive feedback (except for hiding the end part of the El wires). Many audiences came up to me and ask how the lights are moving by themselves/mechanisms are working inside the pedestal. Also the fishing wires are working pretty well as some people didn’t see it until I told them there are fishing wires pulling.
Also during the IMA show, many people were asking me my design concept, and they express their likes to this project. Thanks to all the people who like it!!
(Also I was surprised that I forgot to turn it off the night before IMA show, and it runs for more than 5 hours without any part broken, which was actually unexpected for me)
Video & Photos (Still in update)
Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoy this project from the beginning to the end. I like my concept, idea, material, and also the composition. I learnt the importance of making unpredictable movement for the audience for longer attractions.
If I have time, I would hide the edge of the El wires to be less distracting for the audience, and hide the socket inside the pedestal.
Through this project, I found myself a fan of creating life-like movements for machine. I may not be that into that kind of exquisite beautiful style but rather this entangled, contradictory style projects. I would stick to this style for my future projects.