This is my power animal kinetic sculpture. I created this sculpture to show how my power animal, cars, and humans make the same movements in different ways. There are many aspects to the projects like the deign of a natural element for the background, wire used to make linear movements, and beads to show how they move. I learned a lot about making connections but also the importance of seeing the differences. I love how it turned out especially the way the brown for dirt and green for grass and tress mixed together. I call this project Perspective of Perception.
DeDe Curtis
September 2012
Perspective on Perception
Box, Wire, Clay, Paper, Markers, Cardboard,
13’’ x 9.5’’ inches
In our Art class “Great Pretender” we researched our power animals. With lots of research, I found my power animal, the lioness. Some of the research included the IChing, watching animals videos, and researching over the internet. The IChing is a Chinese based way of fortune telling that uses symbols to give advice. We watched a video about how animals connect to natural elements and what that means. After we had a few ideas of what animals we felt we should pursue to see if they connected to us we did research on the characteristics that the animals had and if they were similar to our own or some we wished we had.Then we started going into depth on the movement aspect of the animal. By watching videos and looking at images of the animals in action, this is when we began to sketch our own simple drawings of the animals. With this we made a 9 frame collection of images of the animal in motion. Then we expanded it into a flip book.We got more into the movement focusing on how they inform us about the power animal. I chose the eyes of the lioness and how they perceive their surroundings and strategize when looking for a prey. After that we had to find a way that this movement is replicated in a machine and human form. For the machine form I chose car mirrors and how they are controlled in a way that goes either inward and outward or up and down. For the human replication I chose basketball players using peripheral vision.After finding those three components we had to create the motion in linear forms. While doing this we were able to see the differences in the motions depending on if it was the machine, animal, or human performing them. For example, depending on which of the three things motion I was looking at the timing changed. If it was the human vision it was fast and switching around and seeing from different angles but it wasn’t clear and precise more blurry. On the other hand the lion was a little slower but the vision was clear and they could see farther. The car mirrors were slower because you had to switch between up and down and in out which slowed it down.
Once we were done deciding on the linear structure we made a three dimensional version using wire. Then we created legs with clay that we stuck to cardboard. After the legs were made we created beads to put on it to go through the linear structures. The beads where the element that made it a kinetic sculpture by showing the flow of the different pieces. Then we began to decorate the board based on our animal’s natural element. My animal’s natural element was earth so I used the colors green and brown. I tried to mix the colors instead of separating the green and brown. This was to show land and dirt mixing and at some points becoming one. I chose to make the surface rough instead of smooth because the earth isn’t perfectly smooth or soft.
