Gravity Pause
Rubberbands, Nails, Rocks
Created Fall 2012
Suspension will always be a favorite subject of mine. Coming from a physics background, I'm in love with making movement and incorporating kinetic aspects into my work.
This was the beginning of the science and art fusion.
Inspired by Alexander Calder, these kinetic universes are either contained within a structure or allowed to completely take over a space through free installation. They tend to never look the same twice because of the weight and shape of the different rocks, the type/size of rubberband, and the space they are put within. Touch one and vibrations are sent through the entire piece, causing waves of motion until gravity pauses yet again.
Created Fall 2012
Suspension will always be a favorite subject of mine. Coming from a physics background, I'm in love with making movement and incorporating kinetic aspects into my work.
This was the beginning of the science and art fusion.
Inspired by Alexander Calder, these kinetic universes are either contained within a structure or allowed to completely take over a space through free installation. They tend to never look the same twice because of the weight and shape of the different rocks, the type/size of rubberband, and the space they are put within. Touch one and vibrations are sent through the entire piece, causing waves of motion until gravity pauses yet again.
Forces are all around us. They act on our bodies every second of every day. Gravity allows us to walk on the ground, drive our cars, and jump-rope without flying off into the clouds. Gravitational pull keeps our planet orbiting around the sun – giving us heat, light, and life. When we ride a bus, the forces of acceleration and velocity outweigh the frictional forces of the road, causing the vehicle to move in a forward direction. Every single day there are uncountable forces with unimaginable vectors acting on our every movement.
My goal with these two pieces is to begin to unravel this world of invisible vectors. I want to show how something as ordinary as a rock still has a complex network keeping it exactly where it lies. Acceleration, velocity, and gravity vectors are illuminated through the use of tensile bands and we can see how every movement within this kinetic universe affects the object within.
I specifically chose to use ordinary materials that viewers would recognize such as metal, rock, and rubberbands. This was a strategy to make the work approachable and more predictable on purpose so that viewers may feel like they could touch the sphere. Everyone knows that rubberbands are stretchy and that rocks are heavy – I was hoping that this would lead viewers to contemplate the reaction of their touch and come to the realization that prodding or pushing the spheres would cause no damage to the pieces themselves. This is an interactivity that is often not seen with art and therefore is difficult to obtain because viewers are taught not to get too close to the artwork or touch it in any way.
My background in science definitely inspires me to break down these complex subjects and make them relate-able to the average viewer. Architectural design taught me how to visualize space (whether big or small) and allow me to create my own universes within a structural grid. When I combined these two fields with sculpture, I found that everything felt so natural to create – like an elemental experiment straight out of a freshman textbook. While this series has just begun, there seems to be infinite possibilities with the directions I could explore – much like the universe we inhabit.
My goal with these two pieces is to begin to unravel this world of invisible vectors. I want to show how something as ordinary as a rock still has a complex network keeping it exactly where it lies. Acceleration, velocity, and gravity vectors are illuminated through the use of tensile bands and we can see how every movement within this kinetic universe affects the object within.
I specifically chose to use ordinary materials that viewers would recognize such as metal, rock, and rubberbands. This was a strategy to make the work approachable and more predictable on purpose so that viewers may feel like they could touch the sphere. Everyone knows that rubberbands are stretchy and that rocks are heavy – I was hoping that this would lead viewers to contemplate the reaction of their touch and come to the realization that prodding or pushing the spheres would cause no damage to the pieces themselves. This is an interactivity that is often not seen with art and therefore is difficult to obtain because viewers are taught not to get too close to the artwork or touch it in any way.
My background in science definitely inspires me to break down these complex subjects and make them relate-able to the average viewer. Architectural design taught me how to visualize space (whether big or small) and allow me to create my own universes within a structural grid. When I combined these two fields with sculpture, I found that everything felt so natural to create – like an elemental experiment straight out of a freshman textbook. While this series has just begun, there seems to be infinite possibilities with the directions I could explore – much like the universe we inhabit.
