Wednesday 29 February 2012

Bigger things

I recycled some of the struts I used for my geodesic dome experiment. With about 90 cm strut length 6 strut models of tetrahedron and icosahedron just so fit through my front door, my ambitions certainly outgrow my available work space indoors. 23 squared still hangs in a modestly visible spot from a tree, the storms of the last few days haven't affected it.

I have no idea about the effect sunlight will produce - typical Melbourne weathers meant grey skies since I installed it. But I found a perfectly suited spot for the next installation, an icosahedron, again with some parts of the struts spray painted.

The rain seemed to have stretched the tendons, I twisted some struts to increase the overall tension. I hope my idea about visibility works out, at night it's basically invisible. Hope the sun comes back to Melbourne soon.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Do or die

2012 started suboptimal when it comes to market appearances. Without the more complex sculptures, there's less eye catchers on the table. Who cares, I'm basically trying to sell art, so can't really analyse my success in business terms.

On the other hand, the lack of sales means I can come up with new projects what to do with tiny supply of rods I still have at my disposal. The source has dried out, just after I got a better idea how to work with the slightly heavier material than usual.

However, I experimented with a different topology for the tendons in the corner. Instead of connecting the tendons between neighbouring struts, I used a little ring to join them in the center of the corner. The struts have now an individual degree of lateral movement, and the cube happily balances on each corner. I also build an octahedron and the Vector Equilibrium in star formation instead of using loops for the corner.

As I enjoyed the different movement patterns with centrally joined corners, I went a bit bigger, attempting a hanging installation for outdoors. It survived already some strong gusts in its test location, it behaves quite nicely in windy conditions. The structure tends to rotate slightly out of the wind pressure, and doesn't swing itself up easily.