Between Time And Space [2015]
Opensource Kinetic Work with Elastics
“Between Time and Space” is a play with the human perception of space and the intricacy of mechanical gears to drive a complex mechanism. It is a machine built to stretch 6 elastics in a flat configuration so that for a spectator standing in front of the piece, the illusion of a rotating cube in space is achieved. Driven by one single motor it uses a complex arrangement of gears and levers made out of acrylic glass.
The piece references the first computer generated renderings of spaces: simple rotating wireframe objects. But in difference to the computer generated images, where a set of matrices-calculations do their job hidden in the electronic circuitry, this machine does the trick in a purely mechanical way, well visible to the spectator. Its mechanical complexity is mesmerising like a clock-work. And because it basically consists of two rotating dials and four arms, the reference to a clock is obvious: Two clocks, one rotating clockwise, the other counterclockwise, create the illusion of space. Thus having its own ironic take on how Einsteins “Space-Time Continuum” might look like.
background
The idea for this device originated 2014 in preparation for a workshop organized by reprogrammed-art and was inspired by works of Gianni Colombo
The piece is open source hardware and published under
and can be downloaded from here