Looking for a piece of art

March 5, 2009 11:28 AM

Hi I'm trying to find a piece of art - a series of lights attached to wooden arms whose tips trace some sort of toroidal geometry. At high speeds the armature disappears and the lights form volumes as luminous wireframes, like synchronised mechanical sparklers.

It was on display at the Walsall Art gallery in Birmingham, UK sometime in 2004/5 I think. It's semi popular (no really it is!) but I can't think for the life of me what to google to get it, who made it etc.

posted by doobiedoo to media & arts (5 comments total)

this sounds like it:

Conrad Shawcross
15/7/2005---11/9/2005
This major solo exhibition will bring together brand new works by the artist that typically combine his interest in sculpture and science, and which demonstrate the intellectual rigour, technical dexterity and intense sense of drama that we have come to associate with Conrad's work. The new works will draw upon quantum mechanics and musical theory, especially the science of harmonics. One of the new works will consist of five caged machines, each producing a geometric loop of light in space. "They are visual, sculptural, transcriptions of the harmonic chord sequences in music which while sounding good to us also contain true mathematical simplicity." (Conrad Shawcross)

A publication will accompany this exhibition.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 11:36 AM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

and for what it's worth, it reminds me of this fantastic shot of Picasso drawing in space.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 11:38 AM on March 5

Aaah, don't remind me. Since 1991 I had this down as a device to create, and even built the sliprings and showed the flat "mark 1" version in Seattle last year. Mine would use bulbs on spinning cables with winch motors to move them around: expanding and contracting circles. Then I saw this:

Carl Pisaturo: Orbit Machines
http://carlpisaturo.com/
posted by billb at 12:04 PM on March 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

Seconding Conrad Shawcross - great work...
posted by Chairboy at 12:08 PM on March 5

Thanks guys, good work tracking down those geometries
posted by doobiedoo at 3:54 PM on March 5