http://www.mechanicalcuriosities.com/
Anybody knew about this site?
I love this kind of art, nice to watch.
Mechanical Art
Moderator: scott
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getterdone
- Aficionado
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- Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:27 pm
re: Mechanical Art
Hi Gregory, I liked it too. Thanks for sharing
Beer is the cause and the solution of all my problems.
re: Mechanical Art
Whilst his craftsmanship is of the finest order , I can not help thinking it could be put to better use. Its a bit like wasting money on moon shots while people are starving . Call me a Philistine if you must...
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LustInBlack
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re: Mechanical Art
I'm quite sure this guy makes enough money out of it .. 8]
But practically speaking, no it's not that useful, but it spawns new ideas which is good.. Intellectual delight!
But practically speaking, no it's not that useful, but it spawns new ideas which is good.. Intellectual delight!
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nicbordeaux
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re: Mechanical Art
Neptune my friend, you are indeed a philistine of the first order :)
There is a certain pleasure in making beautiful things, and in admiring other people's craftsmanship. The waste of money on moonshots ? I wonder what the result would be if you divide total expenditure by human population in terms of money per capita ? But you are very right in the sense that if you take all "wasted" money and redistribute it as needed, the human fate would be better for most of the world. As long as you invent PM and unlimited environment friendly free energy, otherwise the ungrateful louts will start polluting the world worse than us :) Plus you'd be branded a Commie.
Currently working hard on a device which hopefully won't stand a chance in heck of working, but will look fearfully clever and have some nice wood and fancy metal work with gears and pulleys and sliding weights all over the place. Ultimate irony would be to set out to build a non working device and accidently invent something that works :)
There is a certain pleasure in making beautiful things, and in admiring other people's craftsmanship. The waste of money on moonshots ? I wonder what the result would be if you divide total expenditure by human population in terms of money per capita ? But you are very right in the sense that if you take all "wasted" money and redistribute it as needed, the human fate would be better for most of the world. As long as you invent PM and unlimited environment friendly free energy, otherwise the ungrateful louts will start polluting the world worse than us :) Plus you'd be branded a Commie.
Currently working hard on a device which hopefully won't stand a chance in heck of working, but will look fearfully clever and have some nice wood and fancy metal work with gears and pulleys and sliding weights all over the place. Ultimate irony would be to set out to build a non working device and accidently invent something that works :)
If you think you have an overunity device, think again, there is no such thing. You might just possibly have an unexpectedly efficient device. In which case you will be abducted by MIB and threatened by aliens.
re: Mechanical Art
Well Neptune....
Those charming little devices or works of kinetic art that this fellow makes all demonstrate some basic principles of mechanics in a rather novel and quite attractive way and one that he clearly has some talent for producing.
They are works of art, however, and the purpose they serve is the same as all art does does...to engage our minds and provoke us to to think a little bit deeper about the feelings that seem to arise in response to them and what they mean to us.
The Art Deco period that they would seem to belong to was a time when art and architecture quite delibertately incorporated a rather sophisticated and streamlined mechanical feeling to more ordinary objects in very much the same way that the Art Nouveau movement that preceded it had incorporated something of a more sprawling and growing natural or organic feeling to the way all of it's works were embelished.
Both schools were far more more focussed on "ornamentation" or "decoration" than any pure art or it's subject matter to try and create or inspire certain feelings, relying mainly on the way they were presented to the viewer.
Much of the machinery of the early industrial age was quite brutal and alien looking and the period itself produced many negative and de-humanizing effects because of them. So Art Nouveau arose to essentially appeal to those more natural aspects and sensitivities that seemed to be missing or lost because of that and try to put them back into peoples lives in other ways like furnishings, wallpaper, clothing and textiles, and even some of the architecture of that time.
Art Deco, that followed right on its heels, on the other hand, tried to see those same mechanical aspects in a far more positive and promising way and that they were hopefully leading to a more modern and better world that it was essentially trying to inspire people to try and both think of in that way and as themselves as being a part of.
More or less the ideal of modernity as it was seen before it actually arrived. Since the reality turned out to be both more and less than anyone expected both of those artistic movements still hold a very great deal of appeal for us in what still seems to be missing in the artificiality of our daily suroundings.
One objects simply to so much artificiality being there in the first place while the other points out that we haven't done nearly enough to try and make it far more attractive and appealing in addition to whatever it's function or purpose is.
No one can deny that there is certainly far too much artificiality in our existence and that very little has been done to more comfortably adapt it to us rather than us having to always uncomfortably adapt to it.
Now what I have just written is simply the thoughts that have come to mind upon viewing that artwork in question and that I wouldn't have actually thought about in quite that way, otherwise. Not that the ideas themselves weren't floating around but that I wouldn't have put them together or put them down this way to see them myself and share them with others at very same time.
That is really why art is important and actually far more important than many other more practical matters. Our sense of practicality is generally focused on very direct results but if we don't think any deeper or further afield than that about them we can easily go astray and wind up with any number of unwanted side-effects or even greater problems for ourselves than the ones we think we are trying to solve.
Art in it's many and various forms is one of the ways we remind ourselves about forgetting that among other things, and the occasions when we do never cease to provide a quite an endless supply of them on regular basis for artists to keep right on trying to remind us.
Those charming little devices or works of kinetic art that this fellow makes all demonstrate some basic principles of mechanics in a rather novel and quite attractive way and one that he clearly has some talent for producing.
They are works of art, however, and the purpose they serve is the same as all art does does...to engage our minds and provoke us to to think a little bit deeper about the feelings that seem to arise in response to them and what they mean to us.
The Art Deco period that they would seem to belong to was a time when art and architecture quite delibertately incorporated a rather sophisticated and streamlined mechanical feeling to more ordinary objects in very much the same way that the Art Nouveau movement that preceded it had incorporated something of a more sprawling and growing natural or organic feeling to the way all of it's works were embelished.
Both schools were far more more focussed on "ornamentation" or "decoration" than any pure art or it's subject matter to try and create or inspire certain feelings, relying mainly on the way they were presented to the viewer.
Much of the machinery of the early industrial age was quite brutal and alien looking and the period itself produced many negative and de-humanizing effects because of them. So Art Nouveau arose to essentially appeal to those more natural aspects and sensitivities that seemed to be missing or lost because of that and try to put them back into peoples lives in other ways like furnishings, wallpaper, clothing and textiles, and even some of the architecture of that time.
Art Deco, that followed right on its heels, on the other hand, tried to see those same mechanical aspects in a far more positive and promising way and that they were hopefully leading to a more modern and better world that it was essentially trying to inspire people to try and both think of in that way and as themselves as being a part of.
More or less the ideal of modernity as it was seen before it actually arrived. Since the reality turned out to be both more and less than anyone expected both of those artistic movements still hold a very great deal of appeal for us in what still seems to be missing in the artificiality of our daily suroundings.
One objects simply to so much artificiality being there in the first place while the other points out that we haven't done nearly enough to try and make it far more attractive and appealing in addition to whatever it's function or purpose is.
No one can deny that there is certainly far too much artificiality in our existence and that very little has been done to more comfortably adapt it to us rather than us having to always uncomfortably adapt to it.
Now what I have just written is simply the thoughts that have come to mind upon viewing that artwork in question and that I wouldn't have actually thought about in quite that way, otherwise. Not that the ideas themselves weren't floating around but that I wouldn't have put them together or put them down this way to see them myself and share them with others at very same time.
That is really why art is important and actually far more important than many other more practical matters. Our sense of practicality is generally focused on very direct results but if we don't think any deeper or further afield than that about them we can easily go astray and wind up with any number of unwanted side-effects or even greater problems for ourselves than the ones we think we are trying to solve.
Art in it's many and various forms is one of the ways we remind ourselves about forgetting that among other things, and the occasions when we do never cease to provide a quite an endless supply of them on regular basis for artists to keep right on trying to remind us.
Fondest Regards from the Fox
re: Mechanical Art
@nicbordeaux and silverfox. OK chaps , and I consider myself suitably reprimanded LOL . Yes , even I can appreciate art to a degree. I was never really an artist , or much of a musician myself , but I amused myself , and hopefully one or two others . For me , the finest art is that that combines both form and function , such as some early steam engines , hot air engines , sewing machines etc.
The amount of resources spent on space research pales into insignificence compared with the money we invest in killing each other. But what can you do ? I am always pleased when my posts provoke controversy , hopefully without animosity.
The amount of resources spent on space research pales into insignificence compared with the money we invest in killing each other. But what can you do ? I am always pleased when my posts provoke controversy , hopefully without animosity.
re: Mechanical Art
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, essayist)
Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, essayist)
What goes around, comes around.
re: Mechanical Art
Art. of course, comes in many flavors and everyone is quite capable of expressing themselves artistically in one way or another whether that's simply with a finger on a fogged-up pane of glass or with a stick in the wet sand as the tide goes out at the beach.
It doesn't have to be formal, done for money, permanent, or really even need to be seen by anyone else to qualify. What matters is the openess of our minds to the shapes, or colors, or textures that any thoughts, ideas, or feelings just simply suggest to us and having a go at trying to physically represent or express them in some way. Externalizing those qualities always reveals some new aspects or associations that aren't readily apparent to us any other way.
That's very much a two way street and whether we are making some art ourselves or entertaining and being entertained by the art of others that mental exercise can have the same effect.
Just as "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." as the saying goes, so too does the same thing apply to our own thinking processes and abilities. Without enough mental play and playfulness to balance out our more serious thoughts and concerns those faculties become dulled and our insight just that much less sharp or keen at times when it really can matter or make a difference.
It doesn't have to be formal, done for money, permanent, or really even need to be seen by anyone else to qualify. What matters is the openess of our minds to the shapes, or colors, or textures that any thoughts, ideas, or feelings just simply suggest to us and having a go at trying to physically represent or express them in some way. Externalizing those qualities always reveals some new aspects or associations that aren't readily apparent to us any other way.
That's very much a two way street and whether we are making some art ourselves or entertaining and being entertained by the art of others that mental exercise can have the same effect.
Just as "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." as the saying goes, so too does the same thing apply to our own thinking processes and abilities. Without enough mental play and playfulness to balance out our more serious thoughts and concerns those faculties become dulled and our insight just that much less sharp or keen at times when it really can matter or make a difference.
Fondest Regards from the Fox
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nicbordeaux
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- Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:54 pm
- Location: France
The mental exercise involved in art is indeed good for those who posess the ability or desire to exercise their brains, though one could debate wheter drawing a line in the sand is more art than picking one's nose.
As to the functional beauty of a well tuned, precise mechanism, yes. Not everybody is sensitive to it, but if you are, the world can be marvelous place :)
More generally speaking I'd say art is a communication vector, just as language is, but infinitely more subtle. Whereas words are limited in scope individually, and to an extent can convey subltlety in association, an artform such as music (the most direct and subtle of all) is a means of communicating mood, feelings. ThUs it enables us to put across or perceive perceptions which the "author" can't put into words, for lack of words.
The awful thing about art is that in most forms the interpretation is dictated by a bunch of fascist art critics, art historians, school teachers who have learnt the delusional hair-splitting of the afore-mentionned parasites, and endoctrinate our kids. Even writing suffers from this : "Shakespeare meant this"... What a load of utter tosh, nobody knows what Shakespeare meant outside the obvious, the rest is pure interpretation, whatever the knowledge of context.
So, silverfox, art can perform the function you describe, but only as long as as it is not taught rigidly or interpreted in a formal manner.
Neptune, want to read some good stuff about the theorization and utter stupidity that leads to killing ? You could do worse than check this one out http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14411.html
Hope it's allowed to link to non-offensive material.
As to the functional beauty of a well tuned, precise mechanism, yes. Not everybody is sensitive to it, but if you are, the world can be marvelous place :)
More generally speaking I'd say art is a communication vector, just as language is, but infinitely more subtle. Whereas words are limited in scope individually, and to an extent can convey subltlety in association, an artform such as music (the most direct and subtle of all) is a means of communicating mood, feelings. ThUs it enables us to put across or perceive perceptions which the "author" can't put into words, for lack of words.
The awful thing about art is that in most forms the interpretation is dictated by a bunch of fascist art critics, art historians, school teachers who have learnt the delusional hair-splitting of the afore-mentionned parasites, and endoctrinate our kids. Even writing suffers from this : "Shakespeare meant this"... What a load of utter tosh, nobody knows what Shakespeare meant outside the obvious, the rest is pure interpretation, whatever the knowledge of context.
So, silverfox, art can perform the function you describe, but only as long as as it is not taught rigidly or interpreted in a formal manner.
Neptune, want to read some good stuff about the theorization and utter stupidity that leads to killing ? You could do worse than check this one out http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14411.html
Hope it's allowed to link to non-offensive material.
re: Mechanical Art
This comes under the heading of "You couldnt make it up " or fact is stranger than fiction.
re: Mechanical Art
Censorship?
I clicked on the first video in the link above and received a nice banner saying 'Not available in your area'
Ralph
I clicked on the first video in the link above and received a nice banner saying 'Not available in your area'
Ralph
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nicbordeaux
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- Location: France
re: Mechanical Art
Absolutely correct Ralph, I just read the text, didn't check the vids. On doing so, it also tells me for all videos (historical content vids, not funamentalst propaganda) : "Not available in your area".
So, defiinitely yes: Censored.
But there again, it's a war. I think so anyway.
But does it matter ? When we bring the world unlimited free energy from a bicycle wheel, there will be no need for wars or anything, doves shall alight on our heads, our crops shall be abundant, our women will no longer nag, youngsters will behave... :)
So, defiinitely yes: Censored.
But there again, it's a war. I think so anyway.
But does it matter ? When we bring the world unlimited free energy from a bicycle wheel, there will be no need for wars or anything, doves shall alight on our heads, our crops shall be abundant, our women will no longer nag, youngsters will behave... :)
If you think you have an overunity device, think again, there is no such thing. You might just possibly have an unexpectedly efficient device. In which case you will be abducted by MIB and threatened by aliens.
re: Mechanical Art
Unfortunately, unlimited free energy will not stop some religious people from living and dying by the sword. But that's a whole other deal. :-)
re: Mechanical Art
It is my personal opinion that there can never be peace on earth until we outgrow the "Powerful Friend in the sky syndrome." This week in the UK we had the trial of a man who murdered his 15 year old daughter. her "crime" was that she had formed a relationship with a young man who was a slightly different "flavour" of muslim to that of the girls father . This was a so called "honour" killing. If this is honour , I am proud to be dishonorable. If this is religion , I am proud to be on Atheist.