A fancy mechanical Kinetic sculpture inspired by an illusion wood sculpture.
Direct purchase of the instructions
Yes / No Kinetic sculpture
Introduction
Kinetic art has been my most important source of inspiration by the previous months. After hours of research to make a kinetic sculpture, I found the yes / no illusion sculpture made in wood by Markus Raetez and was totally fan of that. Then I wanted to rebuild the concept in Lego.
The original creations made by the artist Markus Raetez was not an kinetic sculpture but a static to. The word yes or no appears depending of where is the viewer, it using the fact that the letters can compose two letter in one using two ways of viewing. You can see the original creations here :
And the videos which showes the result when the viewer is moving :
The creation
Because of the complicated shape of the letters, I have decided to make it moving in order to have the optical illusion. Rather than the viewer moves, it is the letters which move, It enables me to considerably simplify the design of the Y and N letter. Therefore, the principle is simple : 3 moving half-letter which transforms the word yes in no.
Concerning the movements of each letter, I used for that a deformable parallelogram composed of 3 moving beams attached to the frame. The geometry of the beams (placement and lenght) make that the resulting movement is a translation with a 90° rotation on the same horizontal plan, which enables me to move and rotate the letter in order to fit the Y in N, and E and S in O.
In order to move all the parallelograms, I used a simple system of connecting rod with handle. A principal handle motorized by a single M motor with a worm screw on a 40-tooth gear moves a sliding connecting rod attached to the grey beams. Then all letters are linked together with an other system of grey beams visible on the pictures. This solution is very simple, not so effective because of a little delay on the last letter (at the end on the kinematic chains) but is the most simple and compact. The soft spring is to reduced the fits and starts linked to the handle.
The video
More than thousand words : the video of the functioning !
To conclude, I am fascinated by the kinetic art, moving things, and mechanical stuff, so this sculpture is the first of a long set !
Building Instructions
Thorsten Spelz has made the building instructions for my Yes/No Kinetic sculpture based on the dismantling picture I have made ! Therefore I can propose you two instructions, one for free based on photo sequence, and one with professionnal look building made by computer for sale.
Computer Rendered Instructions
You can buy the instructions with the following button for 5€. You can also buy other building instructions and get an automated discount. You will get 15% off for 2 PDF, and 20% off for 3 PDF on the total), available for all the instructions for sale on nico71.fr.
See it on the shop :
Yes / No Kinetic sculpture
After your payment, you will be redirected to a page for downloading your instructions, and will receive also the link to download by email. Please check the spam box and be patient to receive it. If you have trouble to download your copy of the PDF after payment or open the document, do not make a paypal dispute, please contact me using the contact form. The link to download the instructions expires within 24h. Contact me if you have lost your instructions. Note that you can print it, but not copy or distribute. Thank you for supporting my work 🙂
Here is some preview of the building instructions :
Photo Sequence Instructions
