Reuben Heyday Margolin is an artist who designs kinetic sculptures. His most ambitious work to date is The Nebula, 11,000 pounds of moving sculpture suspended 140’ in the air. Wired has a short, navigable movie on its design, construction and installation. (30 secs of advertising beforehand). Margolin’s art has also been powered by the human body in modern dance. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul on May 26, 2011 - 7 comments

Amazing, fun and interesting kinetic paper creations:Gear's heart [action starts at 0:49]. Paper Engineering by Kamikara. Some of his other creations in action: The Egg of the Dinosaur | Surprised Zombie | Globe Puzzle| Penguin Bomb | Mr. Grieve | His YouTube channel, girigiriou. Previously.
posted by nickyskye on Mar 2, 2011 - 5 comments

Philip Beesley is an architect who also creates wonderful kinetic sculptures. You can see them in motion on his Youtube page.
posted by swordfishtrombones on Dec 10, 2007 - 2 comments

Kinetic sculpture. Will stroll the beach with you.
posted by wallstreet1929 on May 5, 2007 - 44 comments

Tim Fort's Kinetic Art
posted by brundlefly on Feb 2, 2007 - 11 comments

Len Lye: New Zealander Len Lye was a restless maverick - a pioneer of films without cameras (drawing directly onto the celluloid) and kinetic art (CD available through Atoll, sound samples here and here), and he was also quite handy with poems and inks. More about his Windwand and recently installed Waterwhirler on Flickr. Coralised open directory of short Waterwhirler movies here.
posted by nylon on May 30, 2006 - 7 comments

Rube Goldberg, former mining engineer, Godfather to Mad Magazine’s “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” cartoonist for Boob McNutt and Mike & Ike (they look alike), is best known for the now eponymous machines he started cartooning back in 1914 such as: how to not forget to mail a letter. Or the reminder to take out the garbage. Or the local government efficiency machine. Or the oversleeping cure. Or the German webserver wakeup device (it’s got sound). There are amateurs making ‘Rube Goldberg machines,’ but there are also serious contests, sponsored by serious engineers. (There are even do it yourself plans - y’know, for kids). Goldberg’s influence can be seen in a variety of media, but by the time he turned 80 he’d tired of cartooning and decided to begin sculpting. Needless to say he excelled and of course, influenced humorous kinetic sculpture.
posted by Smedleyman on Mar 15, 2006 - 13 comments