Gravity is the only glue

January 5, 2013 11:57 AM

"Rock balancing is an art, discipline, or hobby (depending upon the intent of the practitioner) in which rocks are balanced on top of one another in various positions". Here are a few practitioners:
Phillip A. Long
Renato Brancaleoni
Lila Higgins
Adrian Gray
Michael Grab
Terry Robison uses sticks beside stones
Dave Gorman
Peter Juhl shares basic principles
Team Sandtastic stacks rocks when they don’t build elaborate sand castles
Bill Dan has links to other balancers.
Extra: Balanced sand castles

(Previously)

posted by growabrain (18 comments total)

These are cool. Not sure I'd have the patience, but glad someone does.
posted by arcticseal at 12:03 PM on January 5

Beats going to the park to push over the Tai Chi folks.

Terry Robison has a sort of Blair Witch thing going on. I know he's got the nice poem there. But it would sort of creep me out.
posted by Smedleyman at 12:06 PM on January 5

Don't forget Andy Goldsworthy
posted by Dmenet at 12:21 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

I totally did this (on a smaller scale) with some friends... I didn't know this was a thing! It certainly is harder than it looks.

Pictures!
posted by dobi at 12:39 PM on January 5 [3 favorites]

Yes I came to mention goldsworthy as well, a true great, that rare contemporary artist who works from a place of humility.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 12:46 PM on January 5

Related NPR blog post from Robert Krulwich
posted by knile at 12:55 PM on January 5

I have admired Renato Brancaleoni's work for years. It is spectacular.

My brother and our friend used to laugh at me when I'd stack rocks, but then they got the bug too and we spent every other weekend for a year stacking and arranging rocks at our favorite site. You can see some of our work FROM SPACE!

And on flickr
posted by Rant93 at 12:56 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

I found 3 different cairns hiking on Barton creek the other day -- Austin has some rock stackers as well. I enjoy coming across the piles & have been taking pictures, but of course I'm lazily surfing the Internet instead of posting them to Flickr.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:18 PM on January 5

This is apparently A Thing at Kirk Creek Campground, Big Sur, California. I walked down at dawn to the rocks on the shore and left my own single standing stone among the towers of five or six balanced on twenty-ton boulders.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:19 PM on January 5

.(….\…………../….)
. \….\……….. /…./
…\….\………./…./
….\…./´¯.I.¯`\./
…./… I….I..(¯¯¯`\
…I…..I….I…¯¯.\…\
…I…..I´¯.I´¯.I..\…)
…\…..` ¯..¯ ´…….’
….\_________.?´
…..lo o o o o ol
…..lo o o o o ol
…..lo o o o o o|
posted by Fizz at 2:17 PM on January 5 [3 favorites]

I totally did this (on a smaller scale) ...

Me too!

It certainly is harder than it looks ...

Our experience was exactly the reverse. I have no experience with the astonishing stacks created in some of these linked videos, but at the one-two-three stones type of scale, it doesn't seem to be all that difficult. If you have any interest at all, I can recommend anybody to give it a try next time you're in an area with good source material (river-side park, etc.) You might surprise yourself!
posted by woodblock100 at 2:56 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

Love this one!
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:09 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

I've always loved running into things like this in random out of the way places.
posted by flaterik at 4:36 PM on January 5

So who did/does the ones along side Laurel Canyon, going over the hill?
posted by bongo_x at 5:54 PM on January 5

The Royal Society approves.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:06 PM on January 5 [3 favorites]

infinitewindow: "This is apparently A Thing at Kirk Creek Campground, Big Sur, California. I walked down at dawn to the rocks on the shore and left my own single standing stone among the towers of five or six balanced on twenty-ton boulders."

When I was a kid my family would take regular road trips up the coast. I have a vivid memory of stopping at a little general store on the 1 in Big Sur and my dad making me get out of the car to look at something. We walked around to the back and down to the creek where there were thin towers of rocks growing up from the water. It seems like they were six or seven feet high (but I can't be sure anymore) and columns made mostly of single rocks stacked on top of each other. It was just magical.

This was forty years ago! Big Sur rocks so hard.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:08 AM on January 6

Way late I know, but here's one of the more photogenic cairns that I found last week.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:18 AM on January 9

Here's another one.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:43 AM on January 9