“MACHINERY IN THE SERVICE OF ART”
The invention of the wheel 3500 years ago has been a crucial milestone in the human technological progress, and was a revolution in transportation, industry and communication. It is also the starting point of modern machinery.It made it possible to use animal traction more efficiently in agriculture, by becoming the mechanical means of force regulation. The wheel is the genesis of directional transmission; gearing and its technological applications are endless.
Candidates must imagine a beautiful piece, inspired by art in the theme of the Time : time flowing, past or present future. This creation must include one or several wheels, cogs and other mechanisms, in order to create an impression of movement. The artistically coherent set is to be placed on a desk or by a window. Applicants must achieve a reasonable dimension between 450 mm and 750 mm at most. The addition of a material other than glass is allowed, as long as it doesn’t hide weaknesses in the execution, if any. Collages are prohibited.
All kinds of glass are acceptable, the use of other material is accepted as long as it remains minor, and glass bonding is forbidden.The use of colored glass can play a dominant role in inclusion or on the surface; they must be considered as essential as visual markers of the work.The work will be accompanied by a file describing the conceptual approach, as well as the operating mode of its manufacture. The file may be presented with sketches, photos, CDs or DVDs. It will be submitted in paper and digital format in PDF
Once the topic of this year’s competition was disclosed, it took us more than 6 months to start the project, conduct extensive research and drawings, implementation of the topic, the search for colors for the leaves of the tree, finding the suppliers for the purchase of raw material, opal, gold, colored glass, silver …
We then had to find a suitable pedestal and set up a small ball-bearing motor. This mechanical part of the project was challenging and involved significant research to implement the motor and the electric connections.
We also had to build a tailor-made wooden box to carry our 85 cm tall glass tree, with his extremely fragile 700 leaves !
All in all, it took us approximately 3 months of hard work – mainly evenings and weekends. It was a bumpy road full of challenges and unexpected difficulties, especially for the glass chain, which took more than 40 hours of work for this single but complex piece.
You can find more information in the video below, detailing every step of this realisation
