Anthony Howe is a kinetic sculptor living in Eastsound, Washington. The sculptor works mainly with stainless steel. His sculptures come to life with every gust of wind, as if by magic, a fabulous, hypnotizing sight.
The video below shows best works Anthony Howe, it is noticeable that facial expressions change with a gust of wind and glimpses of light.
Anthony Howe is a typical city dweller, in whose biography you can find references to places like Manhattan or Seattle at every turn. And yet, it was he, who grew up in the concrete jungle, who managed to find common language with the forces of nature, making them allies in his work. Wind is the main component without which Hove's sculptures simply could not exist.
OCTO 3 . Stainless steel. 7.6 m high x 9.1 m wide x 9.1 m deep. 3200 kg. 16 connected blades rotating on a circular shaft. Withstands wind speeds of 90 mph. Provided various options night illumination. Sold to Dubai, UAE.
Even the lightest breeze can set dozens of rotating parts of the sculptures in motion. Howe says he takes great care to test his sculptures for wind resistance. One way is to mount the sculpture on your Ford F-150 and then drive it down the freeway.
About Face . Stainless steel, copper. 2.2 m high x 1.6 m wide x 1.5 m deep. 100 individually balanced copper panels.
Howe starts with digital modeling using Rhinoceros 3D software, then the steel elements of the sculptures are plasma cut and assembled using traditional technologies working with metal.
Octo 
Olotron 
In-Out Quotient 
Vlast-O- 
In Cloud Light 
Kinetic Wind Sculpture 
The creation of kinetic sculptures, that is, those that can move, as a direction in art arose not so long ago - in the mid-50s of the last century, and as an additional example, we can recall the works of Theo Jansen. However, unlike Jansen's plastic sculptures, Anthony works with metal, predominantly steel. Using steel reinforcement combined with forged curved forms and fiberglass-covered discs, Howe creates fantastic sculptures. In calm weather, they surprise with their elegance, and with the slightest breath of wind they begin to move, spinning in a dance that only they understand and creating an inexplicable secret harmony.
Anthony Howe has been creating kinetic sculptures for about 20 years. "I'm trying to create objects whose appearance will be associated with attributes science fiction just like with biological and astronomical models,” says the author.
The sculptor was born in 1954 in Salt Lake City (Utah, USA). Anthony Howe started his creative career as an artist and only after moving to New York moved from painting to sculpture. The author became widely known in the late 1990s.
Spine Tower
Kinetic art in recent years is at the peak of popularity, because masters who have mastered light and movement manage to achieve a stunning effect - to overcome the static nature of sculpture. Our review contains 8 of the most original examples of how art objects come to life.
1.Fantastic mechanism from the artist Lime Young
Kinetic sculpture by South Korean artist Laimi Yang
Lime Young is a true virtuoso. The master manages to construct the most complex mechanisms from circuit boards, microprocessors, servos and other mechanical devices. When put into action, his kinetic sculptures have a magnetic effect on viewers, because it is simply impossible for the average person to solve the mystery of the mechanism.
2.Car silhouettes made from metal spheres
Kinetic sculpture at the BMW Museum
The kinetic sculpture at the BMW Museum appeared several years ago, but still causes delight. 714 metal spheres are folded into the shape of car models of different years.
3. Wing Flap by Bob Potts
Kinetic sculpture of Bob Potts
70-year-old sculptor Bob Potts creates minimalist, but no less impressive works. His kinetic sculptures imitate the flapping of a bird's wings or the movement of an oar while rowing. It’s amazing how the master manages to convey the trajectory of movement so accurately.
4. "Dancing" sculptures by Anthony Howe
Kinetic sculpture by Anthony Howe
Anthony Howe works with a rough material - steel reinforcement, but creates surprisingly harmonious kinetic sculptures. In calm weather they look elegant and sophisticated, and with the first breath of wind they begin their fancy dance.
5. "Mechanical Fish" by art group ArtMechanicus
Kinetic sculpture from the art group ArtMechanicus
Thanks to the efforts of the art group ArtMechanicus, more than one “mechanical fish” has been born. The collection of Moscow masters includes “Fish-House”, reminiscent of Noah’s Ark, “Fish-Knight”, personifying a lonely horseman, “Nut Fish”, symbolizing the desire for beauty, and “Fish-ram” - an allegory of the struggle between living and inanimate principles.
6. Wooden Wonders by David Roy
With his kinetic sculptures, David Roy gives touching and tender names- “Fiesta”, “Summer Rain”, “Sun Dance”, “Serenade”, “Zephyr”. Wooden creations are set in motion by the wind and immediately become light and graceful.
" received new article"". These are really interesting mechanisms, like living things. It is based on the laws of computer and natural evolution. The first sculptures were sailed. The last animals walk in the calm, sense water and obstacles, remember the path and even protect themselves from storms.
Theo Jansen's kinetic sculpture runs only on wind energy: there are no gasoline, diesel, electric, etc. engines. Energy for movement is stored in bottles. General overview about Theo Jansen's kinetic sculptures can be obtained from the video:
And if you like, we will consider more detailed design features further.
So, for starters, the operating principle of one stilted part.
These are the dimensions of the 11 leg components.
The legs, in turn, are attached to a kind of spine. Spine in in this case- a crankshaft that can either simply transmit motion, or be rotated using propellers, compressed air, and so on.
The best leg movement occurs when the foot describes something like a triangle with rounded vertices. The different proportions of the 11 components of the leg give different geometric shapes when moving. The author of the sculptures experimented a lot, in particular with computer models, to find the ideal relationship between the parts of the leg. This relationship can be presented somewhat more clearly with the help of the following video. It also gives a different interpretation. appearance legs of a kinetic sculpture.
By the way, computer modeling did not give any special results due to the huge number of options geometric shapes, which the foot of the leg can describe. For example, each of the 11 leg components can have 10 length options. This results in more than a million possible curves. The computer would work on them for hundreds of years. I had to turn to the method of computer evolution.
So, the computer selected 1,500 random variants of the lengths of the leg components. And he appreciated the geometric shapes that the foot of each leg describes:
Out of 1,500 options for geometric shapes, the 100 most optimal ones were selected. Accordingly, there were 100 types of combinations of different lengths of leg parts.
From these lengths of parts (the rest were eliminated), another 1500 leg options were randomly created. From these, 100 legs with the most optimal curves were selected. Based on the resulting lengths of the parts, new 1,500 leg options were created - and so on.
The cycle repeated itself day and night for many months. The final result is the leg of Animaris Currens Vulgaris, the first animal to walk independently on a beach. But this leg was not ideal either; the animal stopped periodically. So the evolution continued :)
Here is an example of a set of numbers that give a more or less moving leg:
a = 38, b = 41.5, c = 39.3, d = 40.1, e = 55.8, f = 39.4, g = 36.7, h = 65.7, i = 49, j = 50, k = 61.9, l=7.8, m= 15
Another calculation of the leg components, carried out in Matkada:
And here is another example of calculating the components of the legs:
Based on this calculation, a kinetic sculpture is also built:
In this video you can get a good look at sets of plastic bottles that are used to store wind energy:
The wind moves the sails on the crankshaft, the energy is transferred to the bicycle pump, which pumps up the bottles. This takes several hours. But how can you make an animal move, and even automatically? This requires muscles. Muscle is a tube within a hollow tube, which can cause it to lengthen. Elongation is caused by the inflation of a rubber ball, which increases in volume and pushes the inserted pipe.
Some enthusiasts are trying to develop real vehicles based on them:
Well, the author himself believes that this type of movement is a revolution in the world of technology, comparable in importance to the invention of the wheel. The way these creatures move is based on the principle of the wheel (there is an axis that is always horizontal to the ground), but everything else is different. This is an advantage over a wheel, especially in hard-to-reach places such as sand.
An excellent example of a kinetic sculpture with a “hamster” engine:
Interview with Theo Jansen with Russian subtitles:
The main components of modern kinetic sculptures from Theo Jansen:
- The stilted legs we talked about earlier.
- Engines are also the windage of sculptures.
- Batteries, also known as fan-shaped things on sculptures and plastic bottles into which air is pumped.
- Signal transmission system - tubes transmitting compressed air and check valves with springs.
- Obstacle and soil moisture monitoring system (if the probes encounter insurmountable obstacles, they turn the sculpture back).
- Water sensing system (based on sucking water into bottles, increasing pressure and sending the animal back).
- The animal's brain is a system of bottles, valves, tubes) working on a binary system. The brain counts steps from obstacle to obstacle. Therefore, when the animal reaches water, etc., and turns back, it knows how long to go back.
- Storm protection system (a hammer that drives the stakes on the nose of the sculpture into the ground in strong winds).
There will be more in the future :)
These are the original living kinetic sculptures from Theo Jansen.
Kinetic art in recent years has been at the peak of popularity, because masters who have mastered light and movement manage to achieve a stunning effect - to overcome the static nature of sculpture. In our review - 8 most original examples how art objects come to life.
1.Fantastic mechanism from the artist Lime Young
Lime Young is a true virtuoso. The master manages to construct the most complex mechanisms from circuit boards, microprocessors, servos and other mechanical devices. When put into action, his kinetic sculptures have a magnetic effect on viewers, because it is simply impossible for the average person to solve the mystery of the mechanism.
2.Car silhouettes made from metal spheres
appeared several years ago, but still causes delight. 714 metal spheres are folded into the shape of car models of different years.
3. Wing Flap by Bob Potts
70-year-old sculptor Bob Potts creates minimalist, but no less impressive works. His kinetic sculptures imitate the flapping of a bird's wings or the movement of an oar while rowing. It’s amazing how the master manages to convey the trajectory of movement so accurately.
4. "Dancing" sculptures by Anthony Howe
works with rough material – steel reinforcement, but creates surprisingly harmonious kinetic sculptures. In calm weather they look elegant and sophisticated, and with the first breath of wind they begin their fancy dance.
5. "Mechanical fish" from the art group ArtMechanicus
Thanks to the efforts of the art group ArtMechanicus, more than one “mechanical fish” has been born. The collection of Moscow masters includes “Fish-House”, reminiscent of Noah’s Ark, “Fish-Knight”, personifying a lonely horseman, “Nut Fish”, symbolizing the desire for beauty, and “Fish-ram” - an allegory of the struggle between living and inanimate principles.
6. Wooden Wonders by David Roy
David Roy gives his own touching and tender names - “Fiesta”, “Summer Rain”, “Sun Dance”, “Serenade”, “Zephyr”. Wooden creations are set in motion by the wind and immediately become light and graceful.
7. Kinetic device that plays the violin. By Seth Goldstein
Seth Goldstein is a mechanical engineer who managed to create a device that can copy the movement of hands. The kinetic sculpture, equipped with drives, rotors, pulleys and computer chips, recognizes audio files played on an electronic keyboard and then plays a melody on the violin.
8.Giant animal sculptures by Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen creates giant miracle monsters that, obeying gusts of wind, come to life from plastic tubes, cable cord, nylon ropes and adhesive tape. And then he arranges fun beach walks for insectoid animals. Without a doubt.
January 19th, 2015
It so happened that since October 2009 I have been constantly running the “Artifact” column in the magazine “Popular Mechanics”, dedicated to kinetic and “near-kinetic” scientific and technical art. During this time, I wrote and edited more than 60 articles about various kinetic sculptors and artists, and corresponded and communicated with more than two hundred masters of artistic mechanics.
Chris Eckert (USA). Auto Ink. Device for automatic tattooing. The image is pre-loaded into the computer's memory. Only tested on temporary tattoos using a pen, but can also work with a needle.
I personally know Nemo Gold, Brad Litwin, Ruben Margolin, Chris Eckert, Julien Berthier, Gregory Barsamian, Balint Boligo and dozens of other kinetic sculptors. Over time, I realized that I could easily write a dissertation on kinetic art, and even more than one; in principle, if our education system made it possible to defend a dissertation without going through three years of graduate school, I would do so; an extra crust wouldn’t hurt. There is some kind of option for such a plan, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Another thing is that I am not sure that in Russia there are specialists who understand kinetics better than me, and therefore I have a vague idea of who could become a leader. I never studied kinetic art specifically - it just happened that way. Well, okay, we'll survive without a crust.
Choi Woo-ram ( South Korea). Echo Navigo Larva. Kinetic skeleton of a fantastic creature of the species Anmorome Istiophorus platypterus Uram.
It would be interesting to organize in Moscow or St. Petersburg - actually, it doesn’t matter, in any city in Russia - a full-fledged kinetic art exhibition or some specific sculptor. I myself do not have such financial capabilities, but I do have organizational ones. Contacting and negotiating with any master from the list given at the end of the post is not difficult for me at all. Most of the time I can just call and say something like “Hey Ted, do you want an exhibition in Moscow?”
Nemo Gold (USA). Doubtful. One of the nicest robots by the American sculptor. According to the author, in its body movements the robot is completely alien to doubts and moral principles.
Many people know that I give open lectures on scientific and technical topics - I gave them at Seliger, at regional Russian scientific festivals, at the Siberian “Robosib” and so on. After thinking, I developed lecture on kinetic art- why not? You can even make a course of lectures - I have enough material and knowledge for 16-20 academic hours without repetition, but with illustrations and video materials.
Joseph Hersher (USA). Bread Goldberg Machine. Joseph Herscher's Rube Goldberg machine quickly cooks bread and sends it straight to your plate.
Christopher Miskja (Norway). Machine that uses a thousand years to shut itself down. A mechanical device driven by an engine. The engine drives the first ring, the second one rotates from it through a gear, and so on. The last ring has a pin, which after some time will press the engine shutdown button. This will happen after 1000 years of rotation of the machine - this is how the gear ratios are calculated.
Anthony Howe (USA). In Cloud Light III. Classic street kinetic sculpture. Rotates under the influence of the wind (however, Howe’s works are often equipped with motors to work even in calm conditions)
There is also a subsection of water sculptures, where not air, but water, fire or fog is used as propulsion. For example, Ned Kann.
SOUND MACHINES
A separate area of kinetics is unusual musical instruments and noise robots. In this genre, it is not so much the sound being extracted that is important, but rather the method of extracting it.
The Canadian Maxime de La Rochefoucauld is very interesting here. He makes musical instrument(string or percussion) from all sorts of things, and a column with a spring attached to it is built into its design. It supplies low-frequency (or high-frequency) noise to the speaker, the spring vibrates and hits the strings, producing assonant sounds. De La Rochefoucauld has a whole orchestra of this madness.
Maxime de La Rochefoucauld (Canada). Drum set from the Ki Automates series. Maxim applies vibration to the speaker, a drumstick attached to it on a movable spring beats the stretched skin.
The most interesting kinetic musician, so to speak, is the Swiss Zimoun, a sound architect. He takes various surfaces (most often cardboard boxes) and attaches to them systems of balls driven by motors. The balls randomly hit the boxes, creating a monotonous sound background with a hypnotic quality.
Zimun (Switzerland). 329 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, toluene tank. Zimun once bought a huge toluene tank, cleaned it from the inside and equipped it with 329 motors with cotton balls attached to them. Now there is a measured, oppressive cacophonous madness inside the tank.
Video:
DRAWING MACHINES
A popular trend is drawing machines. A typical representative is Balint Boligo, a Briton of Hungarian origin. He makes very strange drawing machines that can draw monotonous patterns for days. He does a lot more, it's just a good example.
Balint Boligo (UK). Polycycle. Machine-artist. He draws no worse than modern abstractionists and expressionists.
I really love his work The Page Turner:
The luxurious Rube Goldberg car was in the OK Go video:
INTERACTIVE AND DIGITAL ART
The last fifteen years have given a sharp impetus to another direction of kinetic art - various digital interactive installations that interact with the viewer. The coolest thing I've seen in this genre is Daniel Rozin's interactive mirrors. His mirrors are opaque, but consisting of many pixels (wooden, metal, glass); The camera reads the viewer's face and the mirror forms images by changing the position of the pixels.
Daniel Rozin (USA). Peg Mirror. 650 cylindrical wooden blocks change their position relative to the light source, forming the viewer's image.
For example, the Dutchman Marnix de Nijs showed himself well in this context. In his works, the viewer takes a certain position, and the images on interactive screens are formed depending on his behavior.
Marnix de Nijs (Netherlands). Exploded Views Remapping Firenze. An installation in which the viewer can “walk” through interactively and randomly generated world landmarks. In this case, the device is configured to interactive map Florence. The picture on the screen depends on the intensity of your running.
FUNCTIONAL KINETIC ART
A rare but interesting direction is the creation of objects of art that perform some real function. Let's say, very beautiful devices. For example, Wayne Belger makes uniquely designed pinhole cameras from skulls, parts of destroyed buildings and blood. Each camera is created for a specific series of photographs, and the exhibition displays both the photographs and the devices with which they were taken.
Wayne Belger (USA). Untouchable. A pinhole camera made using the blood of a person infected with HIV.
Installation with a camera and photographs.
An absolutely amazing lady - Tatiana van Wark from Holland. She is literally obsessed with science and scientific instruments, and made her first oscilloscope at the age of 14. Now she is over 60, and she continues to make scientific instruments of increased aesthetics.
Tatiana van Wark (Netherlands). The Harmonium. Device for harmonic analysis and signal synthesis. Completely working and suitable for use in the laboratory, just aesthetically very beautiful.
WORKS BEYOND CLASSIFICATION
Finally, there are unique sculptors. Which do things that don't fit into traditional kinetic subgenres.
Francois Junot (France). Alexandre Pouchkin. A mechanical automaton depicting Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin can write 1458 (!) different texts and drawings, imitating Pushkin’s handwriting. He dips his pen into the inkwell, moves his head and hands, and writes and writes. No electronics - only mechanics.
An absolutely unique example is the animated sculptures of Gregory Barsamyan. He makes rotating mechanisms that you need to look at in the stroboscopic flash of light - and you get the feeling that a plasticine cartoon action is unfolding right in front of you, which you can touch with your hands.
Gregory Barsamyan (USA). Feral Font. One of the examples of mechanical “cartoons” by Gregory Barsamyan.
The Korean Choi Woo-Ram also defies classification. He will create incredible beauty and complexity of fantastic animals (mostly “extinct”), to which he gives Latin names and invents complex legends
Choi U-Ram (South Korea). Custos Cavum. The skeleton of a fictional creature Choi, the now dead guardian of the gate between our world and the other world. When the last Custos Cavum died, the last gate closed forever.
"Near-Kinetic" SCULPTURES
“Near-kinetic” art is also interesting. When there may be no moving parts in a sculpture, but its materials and execution technique imply the technogenic origin of the work. Let's say the insects of Christopher Conte.
Christopher Conte (USA). Red Widow. Typical Conte work.
Or figures from Jeremy Mayer's typewriter parts.
Jeremy Mayer (USA). Bust IV. Typical Mayer work.
Les Machines de l'île (France). Le Grand Elephant. A huge steam (actually, of course, diesel) elephant, an imitation of a similar device from the work of Jules Verne, travels around Nantes and gives rides to those who wish.
In total, this is about a quarter of the sculptors with whom I am more or less familiar. I know about about two hundred more, but I have never contacted them, because they work in genres about which I have already done materials. Or I just don't like them for some reason. This also happens.
In general, this is not quite a classification, of course. There are much more directions, in each I can name from 3-4 to 10-15 representatives. I find it difficult to say how many kinetic sculptors there are in the world. There are very few of them in Russia (only the kinetic showcases of Evgeniy Klimov immediately come to mind - in style they belong to the mentioned class of “fair machines”, and the “kinetic fish” of the ArtMechanicus group). In the meantime, this is a very significant and interesting layer of art, which would be interesting to popularize and develop.
So if I do find opportunities to both give lectures on kinetic art and organize an exhibition, don’t pass me by. It will be interesting.
