Kinetic art
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kinetic art is art that moves, or appears to move.
Kinetic energy, in scientific terms, is the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its motion, including the atomic level as in heat.
In kinetic art the motion may be physical, as in the kinetic sculpture of Naum Gabo and mobiles of Alexander Calder, or implied, as in the Op art paintings of Bridget Riley and others.
The kinetic art vogue peaked from the middle 1960s to the middle 1970s.
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[edit] Types of Kinetic Art
Although kinetic art encompasses a very wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles, there are a few noticeable genres:
[edit] Mobiles and Whirligigs
Sculptures designed to move under the influence of air currents. A popular creator of mobile sculptures was Alexander Calder. The category of 'whirligig' also includes a wide variety of simple non-wind-operated toys, usually made of wood. See Mobile (sculpture).
[edit] Rolling-Ball and Related Gadgets
A wide variety of kinetic sculptures use rolling balls on tracks or guideways to create movement. They usually have some sort of powered lift mechanism for raising the balls and are usually continuous in operation. Other related gadgets use wheeled objects, water, or sand operating under gravity to function.
[edit] Domino
From easy-to-build-yourself to extreme-domino-art domino toppling is becoming more and more a kinetic art world wide subject. The masters are the Dutch based Weijers Domino Productions who created Domino Day.
[edit] One-Time Gadgets
There are a wide variety of kinetic-art assemblages designed to operate only once. The most familiar type are Rube Goldberg Gadgets, mechanisms using an assembly of complex elements to perform an absurdly simple task. Another type is domino tumbling which has been popular for several decades. A newer type, Fortean Gadgets, designed by kinetic artist Tim Fort, expand the idea of domino tumbling to wide variety of other chain-reaction techniques such as stick bombs, herringbones, and string-a-lings.
[edit] Optical Sculptures
Some kinetic sculptures use light to create the illusion of movement. They usually involve colored filters, mirrors, diffraction gratings, and other optical elements in motion.
[edit] Automata
Self-operating machines which can also include robotics. See automaton.
[edit] Other
The medium of kinetic art is broader than most other art media and is very hard to categorize. Other kinetic-art gadgets and sculptures may use exotic techniques such as pyrotechnics and are limited only by their creators' imaginations.
[edit] Selected kinetic artists
[edit] Reference
West, Shearer (1996). The Bullfinch Guide to Art. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X.
[edit] External links
- Tim Fort's Kinetic Art - See the 'domino principle' taken to new heights
- Kineticus - Database of kinetic artists
- Kinetic Art Organization (KAO) - KAO - Largest International Kinetic Art Organisation (Kinetic Art film and book library, KAO Museum planned)
- Kinetica Museum - the UK's first dedicated kinetic art gallery and museum.
