Anyone who has spent an hour (or more) standing in the withering heat of Las Vegas just to watch the Bellagio fountains will probably find this as exciting as I do.
That was wonderful. I loved "Sisyphus"--the ball rolling through the sand. So slow and deliberate. And I loved what he said about the difference between modeling something and actually making something. You could write a program that would give you a picture of how ribbons would undulate if one end is moved a certain way, but to actually *create* a machine to move them, so they are actually fluttering and undulating--it's concrete and tactile then. Love that.
I have a sand drawing miracle story: Tibetan monks did a sand painting at Williams College some years ago, and when the time came to dispose of the sand, a friend of my mother's asked them if they could put it in her garden. She had a rhododendron bush there that had never bloomed.
After they put the sand there, the bush bloomed out of season :-)
I love that his art is ending up in Science museums. Displays like that are some of my favorite things about good science museums.
The Funworks in New Orleans was the joy of my being for many reasons, but the best part was the gigantic bubble-dome maker. Not strictly installation art, but oh, I thought the colors were beautiful.
I thoroughly agree. When I have taken kids through, it's that kind of thing that catches their eyes and imagination, and makes them realize that science can be fun.
As fascinating, I'd think, would be the knowledge that it's being done by computer. While that might be off-putting to folks with a conditioned view of art as, "That Thing Done in an Attic by People who are Starving," a lot of the kids I've worked with are very open to the idea of working with computers to create things--and are just as likely to understand and be fascinated by the process of programming and designing the exhibit as they are the exhibit itself. (Slightly different age groups, obviously, but hey--gives the work resonance with a larger age group.)
The kids I know may not be representative, but maybe!
I really like kinetic sculptures and they were very impressive and without computers you definitely couldn't do the water bubble ones, but I actually lust for the space and money of this kinetic artist, Reuben Margolin, who mostly does waveforms inspired by water, using pulleys, etc. http://vimeo.com/3001833
I followed him to his site (linked from the vimeo video) and he's done more amazing stuff since. There's a Magic Wave installation in Switzerland which instead of two diagonal waves overlapping has four!! and they can raise it and lower it. He's got a few youtube movies of it linked from the site. The opening at the science center in Switzerland has a sort of new age theme ^^. And there's a wave he made by lowering and raising cylinders (I think he calls it polygonal wave). Very cool.
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I have a sand drawing miracle story: Tibetan monks did a sand painting at Williams College some years ago, and when the time came to dispose of the sand, a friend of my mother's asked them if they could put it in her garden. She had a rhododendron bush there that had never bloomed.
After they put the sand there, the bush bloomed out of season :-)
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The Funworks in New Orleans was the joy of my being for many reasons, but the best part was the gigantic bubble-dome maker. Not strictly installation art, but oh, I thought the colors were beautiful.
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The kids I know may not be representative, but maybe!
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*kids and adults.
I do wish El-Jay would get on with the process of letting ordinary users edit their comments. *sigh*
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But I like his wood and string stuff best.
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