Child Watching Ball - Arthur Ganson

Based on an earlier machine constructed in college but which has fallen into disrepair, the simple desire to have a child's eyes track a moving blue ball resulted in a strangely complicated mechanism. The design of the most critical part of this mechanism was arrived at suddenly, with no clear pathway. How it happened will always be a mystery to me.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• sculpture
• art
• kinetic

[jna740]

I have now successfully replicated this machine in Meccano. It can be seen on You Tube, and I called it Boy Watching Girl Meccano Machine. Joseph N. Attard, Malta

[dysccophresh]

i think i love you. will you marry me?

[jna740]

Mr Ganson, I tried to replicate your machine in Meccano. Building all the movements was not a great problem. But getting the child to follow the ball is! I suspect that it all depends on mathematical ratios of lengths of arms, cranks, etc. I would appreciate it a lot if you were to offer a bit of help with the "critical part of the mechanism". All assistance will be duly acknowledged if I succeed in getting the machine to work properly. Joseph N. Attard, Malta: jnattard@onvol.net

[FHomeBrew]

This is creepy, inspiring and a bit disturbing. Really great! Did you do the maths on this or are you an intuitive builder?

[KaroKann666]

No maaaaaames güey

[astaschak]

you just mind fucked me...

[andthemouse]

The f-ing crazy!

[metrev117]

its kinda scarry, like edward scissorhands

[OregonDARRYL]

Spectacular! I am truly inspired to build.

[certron]

The amazing thing is that watching the ball is the immediate first impulse, but the mechanism that moves the ball is simple. The mechanism that keeps watch has to keep making smaller then larger then smaller lines in order to follow the ball. One's motion is a projection of the motion of the other.