Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Benham's miniature Twin Elliptic Pendulum Harmonograph

http://www.1920-30.com/toys/things-to-make/harmonographs.html

How to Make a Three-Pendulum Rotary Harmonograph

A harmonograph is a mechanical device that uses swinging pendulums to
draw pictures, believed to be originally invented in 1844 by Scottish
mathematician Hugh Blackburn.

Two lateral pendulums swing back and forth at right angles to each
other with arms connecting to a pen.  One moves the pen from side to
side, and the second moves it from front to back on the paper.  A
third "rotary" pendulum moves the paper by swinging on any axis or in
circular motions, while the pen is drawing on it.  The combined
motions of all three pendulums generate the resulting drawing.

http://www.karlsims.com/harmonograph

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

What happens when you place a small pinhole camera on the top of a turntable and expose the film for the length of L America by The Doors (which is 4:35, by the way)? You get the crazy, beautiful photo you see above by photographer Tim Franco

Koji Ryui

Lumia laser special effects

Laser Lumia effects,

Bacchus.mov

animechanic

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy CHERYL VAN HOOVEN

"The enemy of photography is the convention…. The salvation of photography comes from the experiment". -Lazlo Moholy-Nagy from Taken by Design

CHERYL VAN HOOVEN
b. 1948 Chicago, Illinois

From the beginning, Cheryl Van Hooven's intentions in photography have been twofold: first, to cross the barrier between herself and the photographed object, and secondly, to expand the technique, boundaries and definitions of the medium. The artist had been working on a series of photograms when she began adding light drawing to enhance dimension. Using a penlight to draw directly onto photographic paper, Van Hooven moved from light drawing as tool to Light Drawing as subject, at which point the technique became inseparable from the content. "I am interested," says Van Hooven, "in the ability of photography to be both a handmade object and the opposing notion of infinite reproduction; the mechanically photographic versus the personal line; the dialectic between the rational and the irrational."

Van Hooven received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia, Athens in 1970. The following year, she was awarded a fellowship at the Graduate School of Sociology and Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta. Van Hooven has worked as a free-lance photographer for magazines, including Interview, Details, and Vogue Italia.

Artwork from top to bottom:

Untitled (Light Drawing), 1985
unique drawing with light on photographic paper

http://www.carleton.edu/campus/gallery/exhibitions/2001/NOTphotograph/hooven.html

Gerald Walsh

" By removing all subject and utilizing the only necessary element in nature to create an image onto photographic emulsion, the element of light, I create unique images that contain no reference to natural reality and capture the evidence of my movements over time and space." from http://10309.portfolio.artlimited.net/?tabid=70

http://www.lucemograph.com

2007 Light drawings rendered onto photographic emulsion, whether onto film in the camera or more directly onto photographic paper or ortho film..." "...explore the dimensions of random uncertainty, automatic writing, and gesture..." "...with traces of my own unique physical movements and primal marks..." "...as evidence of the artist's hand is captured..."

2006

2005

2004

1998

1997

1996

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Baliant's Lightbox..and Paul Bourke

These drawings were made using a complex array of inter-connected pendulums that move a needle that etches away paint on a sheet of glass. The movement of the pendulum is called Simple Harmonic Motion and due to the complexity of variables in the drawing mechanism, each drawing is completely unique. The devices are made and invented by the artist and are types of harmonographs that use gravity as a force to make unique patterns. The images are the results of traces of the time, movement, and the artist’s interaction, whilst the pendulum is pulled to equilibrium by the Earth’s gravitational pull. These gravity-induced drawings hint at recognizable images found in nature that have also been formed by this universal force. The earth’s gravitational pull is harnessed to produce completely unique forms that often resemble images not dissimilar from ones found in astronomy.

http://picapoint.com/balintbolygo/artwork.php?title=shm_lissajous
This is a drawing/projecting mechanism that creates images (Lissajous curves) using twin elliptic harmonic movement. The movement of a pendulum and its deflecting pendulum result in a fine point scratching a fine layer of carbon off a sheet of glass. With the aid of an overhead projector this process is instantaneously transferred into a light drawing. The images are the results of traces of the time and movement whilst the pendulum is pulled to equilibrium by the Earth's gravitational pull. These gravity-induced drawings hint at recognizable images found in nature that have also been formed by this universal force. The soot that is on the glass relates to Carbon being an abundant component of life and also of the Universe. The earth's gravitational pull is harnessed to produce completely unique forms that often resemble images not dissimilar from ones found in astronomy. The drawings created with this piece are have been made into light boxes.

oh and back to Paul Bourke..
http://paulbourke.net/geometry/harmonograph/

x(t) = A_x(t) sin(w_x t + p_x) + A_s(t) sin(w_s t + p_s)

y(t) = A_y(t) sin(w_y t + p_y)

All initial amplitudes, frequencies (w) and phases (p) should be different and not integer multiples for the most complicated (interesting) patterns.

In order for the amplitude to decay (not necessary but occurs in the real harmonograph) the amplitudes can decay as follows, where d is typically a suitable small positive number. This gives an exponential decay function.

A(t) = A(t-1) (1 - d)

Hugo Arcier

Mutation #1 is the latest cool work of french artist Hugo Arcier, it's a sculpture stemming from digital creative and manufacturing processes and realized via 3D printing. It is the eruption of a 3D wireframe into reality. It is also an "Ikea hack", its size enabling perfect insertion into the famous Expedit bookcase. Once inserted, the sculpture customizes the bookcase by giving it a futuristic look. Limited edition of 15 pieces

Bálint Bolygo's Aurora

Bálint Bolygo’s work explores the similarity between the artistic and scientific mind. His work explores how both minds are motivated by the same need to discover/uncover, and turn resulting ideas into totalities.

His work explores the artistic practice through a process of invention, science and engineering. His mechanical instruments become autonomous and investigate the making process independently. The relationship between the cyclic and predictable nature of the machine and the unpredictability of the human touch conjures up both notions of random chaos and universal order. With the elimination of the artist’s touch, the natural universal forces become the creators of the artwork and the emphasis shifts towards the ‘act of creation’ being the object of beauty. The machine’s process and the resulting images become inseparable dynamics of the work. See more;

http://www.balintbolygo.com

Aurora

Aurora refers to the astrophysical phenomenon of the polar lights caused by solar winds. The piece is an installation that uses a combination of rotating and fixed mirrors and strong lasers. Due to optical laws of internal reflection and refraction, the light effects create a changing light sculpture out of the whole space, where no two moments are the same. The architectural features of the Town Hall Lobby define the unique nature and structure of the piece.

Whilst occupying real space and volume, ‘Aurora’ opens up an eternal virtual space of light within our own familiar and tangible environment. It displaces the viewer into an entirely new spatial experience that raises questions about human perceptions of form, space and time.

“I wanted to create a piece that is about transforming a familiar environment in an unexpected and non-invasive way. To compose an event with the space where the element of chance and order combine, to dislocate the viewer in a unique sensory experience.”