Dynamic sculptures are works of art which mix beauty with physical motion so that the end result is visually stunning. What makes these works special is that the creator needs to have a deep knowledge and skill of multiple disciplines eg.painting and physics, sculpture and electronics. Obviously there are not many such people but the few who exist have astonished the world with the beauty and complexity of their creations.
Melter-3D by Takeshi Murata
Melter-3D is the best known work of contemporary American artist – Takeshi Murata , who uses video and computer animation to create digital media artworks. While most of his work is in special effects and in computer graphics, Melter-3d which is installed at the Frieze New York Art Fair, stands out because this is a real-world kinetic sculpture. Melter-3D is a beachball sized rotating sphere whose surface looks to be made up of constant ripples of shiny mercury.
This illusion is achieved by synchronizing a blinking strobe light onto the rotating sphere. The constantly melting effect comes by timing the spinning of the sphere with the blinking of the strobe. His method is a modern take on the ancient art of zoetrope animations where the illusion of motion was created by creating drawings showing various stages of the motion and then showing each stage in sequence. An example is flipping through a book where each page shows a single stage of an animation. Murata took this concept and extended into 3-dimensions and replaced an actual drawing with a strobe light combined with still images from a camera. When the sphere is stationary and nothing is shining on it, it is just a sphere. But with the right kind of motion and lighting it suddenly becomes a dynamic piece of moving art.
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