Claes Oldenburg

There was a time in my life where I could hardly name any artists, I could describe dozens of works but couldn't put a name to them, for a long time I’ve had a block with names in general. Over time and dubious amounts of study I can now name far more artists however at times I still have blocks with certain names. I went to a retrospective of Claes Oldenburg's work at the MoMA gallery in New York, I was captivated by his work yet forgot his name almost immediately. Two years later Oldenburg's work has been on my mind due to its use of junk object to create art, a principle I want to use in my final piece. Claes Oldenburg, is an American sculpture, the best kind of American. With a name like Claes Oldenburg you can tell he is like most New Yorkers an immigrant, he was born in Stockholm. what interests me about his work is that he uses everyday cheap objects as inspiration, he uses collage and assemblage of waste or ephemeral items to create works which explore scale, the body and erotic analogies. Oldenburg uses materials he finds on the street to create some of his works, his best known work is public art pieces which take the form of large everyday objects. I first discovered Oldenburg at a retrospective of his work in the MoMA gallery in New York, this is just one exhibition in a career stretching many years. Retrospectives look back at a persons career and their work so you have to have really arrived if you have one in a prominent gallery. What intrigued me about Oldenburg was his use of medium, he used mediums which aren't normally associated with high art like, paper mache and assemblage of junk objects. The exhibition, looks at two of bodies of work ‘The Street’ (1960) and ‘The Store’ (1961-64) the early sixties were a time of great creative output of Oldenburg. Alot of Oldenburg’s work is made from resources he find in the street. Oldenburg may not seem like the obvious link to my final design but there are several ways in which his techniques are a good fit. He looks at everyday objects and repurposes found objects into new pieces of work which are to aspects I hope to include in my work, also his work is visually intriguing, my final piece is going to be meaningful and it’s hopefully going to be functioning and kinetic however I also want it to have a grungy, steampunk work which plays with scale and looks visually impressive. 

Final Piece Artist Research

The thing with art is it’s very hard to do something which is genuinely completely new because there so many artists in the world theres little to still be done, but artists keep on innovating, from my point of view I make personal works because they have the most room to create something new. I did want to look at a variety of artists to get inspiration and flesh out my design Ideas, there aren't that many artist who create literal kinetic sculpture, most galleries are still full of mostly static work however after a degree of digging around the internet I found a few artists who do work similar to what I’m planning. I don't want to wince on about my first four artist because as much as I've discussed them and they've influenced my project it’d be nice to find some other to bring new ideas to my work.

Great Ball Contraption (GBC)

Fame is relative, I almost started this paragraph by saying ‘one famous example of a Rube Goldberg machine is the Lego great ball contraption (GBC)’ however I assumes it was only really famous to me and not to the world in general. As a Lego enthusiast (see dictionary definition of social pariah’ I have often watched videos of and read about the GBC and look at its artistic feature. It’s an interesting piece of engineering which I will now describe to you with all the transferred joy I can muster. A great ball contraption is a series of devices (modules) which receive Lego balls and then transfer them a distance, as a series of chain reactions. The interesting feature of GBC is that because there is a set specification a series of modules can be put together which are made by different people. The modules have to made to a set of rules so that each different module can work with any other. Each module should have an "in" basket, and will move balls to the next module's "in" basket.

The IN basket should be 10 studs by 10 studs (outside dimension) with an 8x8 opening, and should be 10 bricks (beams) tall.

The In basket should be located on the left side of the module, and output should go to the right.

Each module should be able to accept balls at an average rate of 1 ball per second. Balls can be passed continuously, or in a batch. A batch should not exceed 30 balls.

Rolling ball machines like the GBC appeal to me because they can be an elegant and intriguing repeating installation. I’ve talked a lot about the concepts and materials I want to use in my final piece and after narrowing down my options I’ve decided on doing a rolling ball device which is repeatable as my final piece, although I won’t make the work out of Lego I will take inspiration from some of the GBC module designs.

GBC Module Designs

Academies Screw

Academies screw modules are rotating helixes which slowly raise up balls. Academies screw were invented by the Grecian inventor Academies and proposed as a way of getting water above water level crops. This module type can be used to raise up balls between levels but require a motor to work.

Ferris wheel

Ferris Wheel modules are large rotating wheels with small cups around the edge, they can be used to control flow by either speeding up or slowing down and they can be used to raise balls to higher levels or lower them. This module requires a motor, preferably with speed control.

Conveyer Belt

Conveyer Belt modules work just like the convey belts at super market checkouts, they can have variable speeds and be used to raise or lower balls, they are versatile but prone to jamming, also they can’t control ball flow. This module requires a motor, preferably with speed control.

Up Pump

Up Pump modules use a com powered pusher to raise up balls, they are prone to jamming but are one of the simplest and most effective ways of raising balls. This module requires a motor and isn’t very interesting to look at but they can serve a purpose.

Train/ Mine Cart

Train/ Mine Carts are small carriages that can collect balls, transport them and deliver them. Train base modules can work on a circuit so they are repeatable and are often powered by motors within the trains. Train cart module take a lot of set up and thought but do work well as well as being visually appealing. 

Tip table

Tip Table modules are simply tray like tables where one end can be raise to create a slop so balls move using gravity to one end. Tip tables can be used to control flow and are capable to taking a lot of balls at once, they are simple and can be controlled with a simple motor and cam.

Wave Motion

Wave Motion modules are similar to Tip Table modules they work by changing levels to move balls. Wave Motion module work as a series of small slopes move up and down to create a flowing motion. The advantage of these module is they can move balls along but the module doesn’t change the height.

Bagatelle

Bagatelle Modules work similar to pinball machines, balls are fed in at the top they then roll down a slope and are filtered by small pegs. These modules are static and don’t need motors however they can be a simple way to create momentum in the ball flow, sort balls and regulate the flow speed.

Shooter

Shooter Modules simply shoot balls into targets they can be used to raise up balls and regulate flow however they are unpredictable and hard to calibrate. Visually they are the most entertaining.

Z Ramp

Z Ramps are a series of track that let balls roll downwards in a Z shaped pattern, they are static module which don’t need motors. Z Ramps only allow balls to go downward but the crate momentum and are very simple. As a side thought I could put bells at each corner to make the module more interesting.

Sweeper

Sweeper modules use a rotating arm to sweep balls along. The module is simple but requires a motor, it works at a variety of speeds so could be connected to another modules drive system, this module can move lots or only a few balls at a time and is very reliable.

Lift

A lift works like a small version of lift in a building, it can be used to move a lot of balls a long distance but is complex and require at least one motor. This king of module would be ideal as a final module because it take balls from the bottom to the top to repeat the system.

Counter

Counter Modules count the number of balls that pass through them, mechanically they are the most complex but are interesting and artistic. I’d like to have one of these modules but the mechanics may prove too difficult.

Rube Goldberg Machines

My decision to make a moving kinetic sculpture for my final piece lead me to researching Rube Goldberg Machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a device which does a simple action in an overly complex and overly engineered way. Rube Goldberg Machines can be contraptions, device, apparatus or sculpture and the term has become used as an idiom to describe something that is purposely convoluted. Most of the times these machine use a chain reaction where one motion sets over a series of other to indirectly cause the end result. The origin of the term and of the type of machine comes from American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who drew images of complex machines which did simple tasks, they were amusing and on occasion made political comments. Across the pond in England we have Heath Robinson, he also drew complex and fantastical machines which predated Goldberg's, To describe something as ‘Heath Robinson’ suggest a repair or piece of machinery which was created using ingenuity and whatever was to hand.  Now how exactly this relates to my project is to me obvious, art works and sculpture opposes pure functionality, so a device which is unnecessarily complicated for the purpose of intrigue is evidently a piece of art. I want my final piece to explore the link between art and function so a work of art which has a convoluted function would be effective.

Kinetic and Interactive Art

Kinetic Art

Kinetic art is a blanket term, similar to ‘flat stuff’, it relates to any piece of art form any medium which contains movement perceivable by the viewer or depends on motion for its effect. The first kinetic art was painted work like that of Boccioni which looked like it was moving but was in fact stationary, these days the term relates to 3D work which move in a literal sense, such as mobiles, environment powered works or machine power sculptures. Some kinetic work rely on the viewer to interact to achieve functionality, this is engaging and unusual in the art world because the interaction between work and viewer is direct and tangible. It’s possible to segregate art which looks like they’re moving and is in fact moving, virtual art is work which appear to move, apparent works actually move. Kinetic art had its origins in the impressionist movement when Monet, Manet and Degas all started to paint in a style which accentuated movement. There are two major reasons I want to create an apparent kinetic art piece for my final design idea, firstly it is an intriguing media which lend to my themes and the concepts I wish to depict and secondly it is a new avenue for me as an artist which will mean I can try genuinely new things.

Interactive Art

Interactive Art interests me greatly the idea that the spectator become part of the art take art on step further than just being something you experience in a detached way but instead in a way that you become part of it. The work takes the focus away from the artist and put it on the viewer they become part of the art and allow it to achieve its purpose. Most interactive art is in the form of installations whereby the observer or visitor can walk in, on or around the instillation an example of this is the 2007 Tate modern instillation where slides were put in the turbine hall and visitors could directly interact by sliding down them. What I like about installation art is that it is a rapidly growing and developing medium because of its tight links to technology it is evolving and changing more than any other medium in present day art.

The Turning Point

In the middle of this paragraph I will reach  fourteen thousand words towards this project, before the sunsets on my fine art A-level I’ll have probably written twice that (sorry). But this is the point in the project where I make my turning point, I’ve written about four artists in detail and nine more loosely, I’ve looked and dozens of works and covered three questions, I’ve come up with several design ideas and I’ve explored numerous avenues. My design Ideas were meant as four options, I’d pick one and progress, but is that true refinement? For each of my designs I’ve found the cusp of what makes it exciting and interesting and I think it shows more refinement to take that single good element and combine it into one mantra for my final piece. I want to move away from how I normally work and I want to spend the second half of my project looking at more artists and trying out more things so that at the end of the process I have a single excellent, refined and well developed final piece.

To describe my final design theres a long story and a short story, read whichever you wish.

The Long Story

Medium

I’ve looked at several mediums and in the development process of my final piece I’ll explore more to find the best suited to my idea. But I’m not going to avoid the obvious truth that my final piece is likely to be an example of multimedia assemblage. How can it not be? It’s what I do best, all the work I’ve done up to this point has elegantly proved that although I’m not a one trick pony I do one trick better than any other.

The concept

I want to create a work about the relationship between my art and engineering, this links to the question, makes the work personal to me and links to my underlying theme. My design idea Inken Cities looks at urbanisation into nature and my work on apocalyptic artists looks at the relationship between artists and technology. So for my final design I want to explore the idea that technology and engineering is surpassing artistry. For me the whole point of art is to do something for its own sake, it doesn’t need a purpose it’s just about creating something interesting for entirely selfish needs, machinery always has a function art doesn’t. The repurposing of a book in my POW escape kit prompted the idea that I could use scrap objects, rejected technology and machinery and rebirth it as a piece of functionless art. Making my skull I used waste products to create art and this idea can take the satiristic twist I used in my POW kit to use discarded machinery and technology to create a piece of art. The satire is that I’m mocking the fact that maybe one day I’ll be replaced by a 3D printer by using other pieces of machinery to create art, I’m taking objects with a function and using them for art. By repurposing junk I’m explore the relationship between humanity and lifeless object which I looked at in my apocalyptic artist and showing not only how fleeting that relationship is but how as an artist I have a purpose because I’m making something out of discarded objects.

The Piece

The final piece itself will be a collection of scrap objects, pieces of machinery and outdated technology that come together to create something visually interesting. I want the whole work to be kinetic, I want it to move because that separates it from my previous static works. I want the work to be created from object that used to have a practical everyday function and I want to morph them into an object which only function is to be a piece of art.

The Links

This idea links to every piece of work I’ve done so far for this project, because this idea was born from the research and exploration I’ve already done. This work links to Andrew Wyeth because I accept I can’t paint like Wyeth but I can strive to create a work as meaningful and deep as his. It links to Giles walker because I’ll use scrap and found object which have been discarded by people to create a new piece of meaningful art. This idea links to Da Vinci’s sketchbooks because I will use the beauty of mechanical forms to create an aesthetically beautiful work. Most obviously it links to the work of Theo Jansen because I want to create a piece of work which moves and intrigues and I want to create something which is both engineeringly amazing and artistically, just like his strand beasts.

I have done four design Ideas and take an aspect from each and blended them into this final design. My POW escape kit influence this project because the repurposing I used in that has inspired my idea to create a final piece made of repurposed objects. My mosaic waste product skull looks at the use of discarded objects to create something beautiful and that’s what I aim to do in the final piece. Inken Cities looked and the interplay between people and urbanisation, this work will take that further and look at the relationship between artists and technology. Finally in my post EMP artist idea I explored what a bare bones artist would look like and I thought about what an artist would do if the world as we knew it ended, the world as we know it is changing every day because of technology so in this piece I can explore where the modern artisan stand in the face of modern engineering.

Of course I’ve taken this project on a merry jaunt to the bare extremes of my question ‘Relationships’ but this idea explore the relationship between my art and the engineering and creative processes which go into its production. The underlying problem with all my design ideas is they lacked a personal to me aspect which I was really passionate about but this idea lets me combine my passion for making things I had as a child and the great transition  I’ve made from wanting to invent thing to have a purpose and improve the world to want to make art which improve the world by being interesting and meaningful.

The Short Story

I’m going to create a work of assemblage made of scrap and discarded pieces of machinery and technology. This work will be kinetic and will take object which have a everyday function and give them a single function of being a piece of art. It will look at the relationship between artists and technology and explore my personal transition between making things for a function and making things for art.

The Really Short Really Refined Story

I’m going to make a big-ass sculpture which will move and mean… many things.

Design Idea - Apocalypse Soon

The world didn’t end in 2012, and 2012 (the film) didn’t end the never ending stream of  apocalypse films and TV shows. Theres so many films about the end of the world I think we can all agree we don’t need the world to end to appreciate what it would be like. Theres many things that seem to be probable causes for the end of the world; global warming, freak weather, solar flares, earthquakes… South Koreans. However the one I find most interesting is the possibility of a global or localised EMP attack, an EMP is an electromagnetic pulse which would completely destroy all electrical devices. Now I find the idea of this extremely interesting, because at the moment I’m typing this intro on an Iphone app, and then I’ll post it on a blog to hopefully be read by people on computers and smartphone. It’s hard to imagine life without any electrical devices, this whole project is about technology and engineering and its relationship to humans which is seemingly symbiotic. For this design idea I create a model of a post-apocalyptic artist, I wanted to explore the idea of an artist living in a dystopian future. If the world as we know it came to an end would there still be artists or would they be two busy scavenging for food and running from oppressors?. I didn’t want to answer this question because it would be too extensive so I created an artist free of all technology and living in a harsh post-EMP apocalypse. This work was inspired by Colby Vincent Edwards’ series ‘The 8^th Day’ but also influenced by the bleakness of Wyeth’s paintings and the creation methods of Giles Walker. If I wanted to continue with this design I would look at other artists who have works with themes of post apocalypse or who have looked at the relationship between technology and art and I would research doomsday preppers, people who prepare for the end of the worlds.

I created this work to explore the ideas of apocalypse inspired art and looking at the relationship between artists and technology. I started with an artist’s mannequin, the wooden things people are supposed to use to help them draw but actually just keep round to look decorative and then removed some parts of it. I took out the upper left arm, head and lower left leg, I made clothes, out of loose weave hessian material and hairy string and I replaced the missing parts with everyday objects. I wanted to depict a person who was well worn and tired looking, I liked the idea that the person was rebuilt out of scrap objects, the arm is an old key, the head is a collection of wood and metal and the peg leg comes from fire damaged wood. The model has an intentionally grungy style but is made to look like a realistic stripped back artist might look. The work was inspired by Colby Vincent Edwards’ series ‘The 8th Day’ but also influenced by the bleakness of Wyeth’s paintings and the creation methods of Giles Walker, I took elements from these 3 artists and combined them to create a strong piece.  I think the assemblage sculpture was highly effective it has a really good look to it but I think that as a theme for development it’s stunted. The idea of looking at a post-apocalyptic artist is good but hasn’t go the legs to be a basis for the whole project, what does have a lot of room for development is looking at the relationship between artists, technology and engineering. I think the exploration of this design Idea has prompted me to refine the progression of my project, instead of just looking at the relationship between art and engineering I will look at the relationship between artists and the use of their technology as well as how I use engineering in my sculptures.