The Mechanical Blog

The wonderful first edition of ‘The Matchstick Nibbler’ from the Fourteen Balls Toy Company are now finished.

This is a favourite piece from our collection made by Paul Spooner piece in 1982. It’s full title is ‘How to Make a Model Goat from Odds and Ends No: 15′ - Nibbling Matchsticks to produce curved horns.

The man nibbles away at his tasty snack of matches (sometimes known as ‘lucifers’) as he eats two devil-like horns appear from the top of his head by means of the bellows action. When the cranking stops the horns slowly recede back into his head.
Everyone who has been very patiently waiting for theirs will receive them this week by Express Courier.

Although these were available as special commission only, we actually have a spare one still available - so click here if you are interested in buying it.

‘Life Forms’, the launch show at Kinetica will open on 6th October. Chico MacMurtrie’s Amorphic Robot Works (pictured) are part of this exciting inaugural exhibition. Make sure you check the programme of performances so that you can see them in action.

Artist Richard Brown’s talk ‘The art of creating illusions of virtual life’ this Friday is the first in a series of stimulating evening events at Kinetica. If you mention CMT when making your booking you pay £4 instead of £6.

Three machines from our collection, Paul Spooner’s ‘The Dream’ and Keith Newstead’s ‘Junkas Giles’ and ‘Peacock’ will be at Kinetica. Also, look out for our products in the Kinetica store.

Arthur Ganson’s new exhibition, ‘Machines and Mechanisms’ can be seen at the McColl Center for the Arts in North Carolina until November 4th 2006.

One the highlights of our summer here in London was the visit by the magical French Street Theatre company Royal De Luxe and their street spectacle The Sultan’s Elephant. It was an extraordinary experience for everyone who saw it, and just looking at the images again still sends shivers down my spine.

The enormous mechanical elephant walked through the streets of London, (traffic lights and street furniture had been removed just so that it could get around) accompanied by the time travelling little girl, who arrived in a rocket early one morning.

If you can make it to the Jours de Fete in Calais 28th Sept - 1st Oct, France you can re-live the experience. Thoroughly recommended.

You can now order your ‘A Cabinet of Curiosities DVD’ at the online shop. They will be dispatched in early November.
The Cabinet of Curiosities is a virtual exhibition and will include new work and curiosities from Paul Spooner, The Fourteen Balls Toy Co, Will Jackson, Arthur Ganson, Rodney Peppe, Robert Race, Melanie Tomlinson, Tim Hunkin and many others.

The on-line Private View will be held on 30th November at 16.00hours GMT.

Some great activities and workshops are on offer at the 6th MindFest at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History this Friday and Saturday.

CMT took part in the original MindFest, ‘a gathering of playful inventors’ at MIT in 1999. It was here that the Designing Automata Kit in it’s original form was used in workshops.
During the event we sat on the ‘Artistic Machines’ panel along with Kinetic Artist Arthur Ganson, Hiroshi Ishii and Anne and Mike Eisenberg, the creators of Hypergami, (and now JavaGami) - if you enjoy making our paper cutouts, take a look at the Hypergami Sculpture Gallery.
The success of the original MindFest led to formation of the PIE (Playful Invention and Exploration) Network. You can get a taste of some the activities from the PIE Scrapbook which has been put together by veteran PIE-oneers, Mike Petrich and Karen Wilkinson of the Exploratorium, San Francisco.

Book a place, (a snip at £5) at Paul Spooner’s forthcoming talk at Trelowarren, Cornwall.

You will be thoroughly entertained as Paul discusses his pieces in the current ‘Smile’ exhibition, as well as an almost complete history of everything else he has ever made.. including the lovely ‘Das Fischermadchen’ (2005) pictured.

The Fisher Girl’s skirt is filled with 27 tiny painted fish, which gently undulate as the handle is turned.

Note: If you are planning to go there pay careful attention to the map before you set off, my visit last week was considerably delayed by visiting the village of Gweek three times.

Kinetica, a brand new museum devoted to Kinetic art will open in a fantastic new two storey building in London’s Spitalfields Market in early October 2006.

The first museum of it’s kind in the UK, Kinetica, is the vision of it’s artistic director, Dianne Harris. Dianne’s success with the Luminaries, (a series of three exhibitions in 2002) inspired her to pursue the idea of a permanent venue for this type of art.

As she says, ‘This ‘wave’ in reference to the metaphor of our ‘great’ machine ‘the Universe’, has inspired generations of artists to explore scientific discoveries and challenge technological life’.

Kinetica will showcase the most cutting-edge U.K and international contemporary New Media art alongside pioneering works from the recent past, with a revolving permanent collection and at least six temporary exhibitions each year, as well as seminars, workshops, discussions and special events.

Tim Hunkin revealed the latest machine for his Under the Pier Show in Southwold, Suffolk, earlier this week.

As Hunkin says, ‘The problem with ordinary seaside telescopes is that they are monotonous. The Quantum Tunnelling Telescope solves this problem by concentrating on interesting events over the horizon, under the waves and into the future’.

If you can get to the Science Station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA before 15th August you will be able to see our USA touring exhibit of Amazing Amusing Machines there. This popular show was held over during the Summer and has 20 exhibits chosen for their intriguing mechanisms.

The labelling for these exhibits is superb - (thanks here to The Science Museum of Minnesota). As well as background information on the piece, a focus on the mechanisms, each one even has it’s own haiku.

This one is for the Scarab Wrapper (pictured)
Pin gear, spin below,
Set Anubis in motion.
Mummify the bug.