It was 1930 - the great depression was just beginning, but ...



It was 1930 - the great depression was just beginning, but a revolution had already occurred. On the heels of the modern art movement that saw the advent of abstract pieces, like Kandinsky’s Composition 8, (left) a different artist, Alexander Calder, was about to create a new type of art.

Calder took several brightly colored abstract shapes, attached them to wire and string, hung it up and called it art. This was a novel experience for the observer. Instead of moving around the piece to get a better view, the art itself moved with each capricious breeze. The very motion became art itself, inspiring another modern artist (Marcel Duchamp) to coin a word for Calder's work that means “motion”. Thus began the life of the “mobile” in the world of museums, public spaces, elementary classrooms, and even shopping malls.

In the modern industrial age, where our dependence on and obsession with machines has only grown, it was only a matter of time before art broke free of a static 2 or 3 dimensions, and moved into the world of multidimensional motion, like Calder’s mobiles. And, as our technology increased, so did our use of that technology in our art. It was the discovery of certain light-sensitive chemicals (silver nitrate) that lead to photography, which lead to the making of movies, arguably America’s favorite art form. (More on next page)

Of course, the use of technology in art has gone much farther than that – we now create art with only pixels and mice. However, somewhere in between the first mobile and the art of digital movies lies a still-growing genre of art that incorporates our fascination with motion, machinery, and electricity. Many pieces these days move, not just from breezes, but by motors. (You can see the motion of the art to the right) They light up. And many invite the interaction of you, the observer, allowing you to change the art by changing what the art does, often with something as simple as an electrical switch.

In preparation for displaying your art at the local children’s science museum Explora, it is now your commission to create such art. Expect to display your work in the show, and to explain its construction, your knowledge of circuits, and your artistic intentions.

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(above: Calder’s “Steel Fish”, 1934)

(Above: Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Sixth Day”, the height of cinematic art)

'Grabber', 2000 by Mo Neal The piece is made of wood, plaster, motors, fabric, chimney cleaner, light, motor

'Grabber', 2000 by Mo Neal The piece is made of wood, plaster, motors, fabric, chimney cleaner, light, motor

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