The following ideas for art works were mainly written between 1987 and 1991 for inclusion in the ION EXCHANGE Newsletter
CONTENTS
When I formed the Ionist Art Group in 1987
I worked out some science-art ideas for collective exploration.
I have prefaced this issue with some basic
concepts which I hoped would initiate fruitful collaboration.
GERALD SHEPHERD
The ideas listed below were elaborations of my initial thoughts which were outlined in the Alpha Issue.
EXPERIMENTS IN ROBOTICS.
Machine designed to produce predetermined sequences of brush movements.
Painting machine based on seismograph which produces artwork with input from aural environment.
Motorized articulated sculpture programmed to create sequence of poses — auto ballet!
Machine extensions to artist's limbs.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Computers programmed to produce art work for imaginary intelligent beings with different arrangements or types of sensory organs (and ways of perceiving world).Computers programmed to effect evolutionary changes on particular painting or painting style.
Computer system designed to record, analyze and interact with animal calls when placed in their environment.Isolated computer system designed to produce artwork in response to random visual and aural stimuli.
ARTWORKS WHICH INTERACT WITH
ENVIRONMENT.
Device which automatically translates different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation into different colours or patterns.Device which automatically translates changes of atmospheric conditions into changes of design.
Sculpture that changes colour in response to acidity of rainfall.
Painting on road which changes colour in response to pollutants coming from car exhausts.
CREATION OF ENVIRONMENTS.
Micro environment which amplifies and repeats all the various noises of the immediate environment.
Micro environment which gradually accelerates diurnal and annual rhythms.
Micro environment which duplicates intrauterine conditions — with the appropriate body sounds, humidity, temperature etc.
Micro environment that continually vibrates in response to heartbeat, breathing etc. of occupant.
EXPERIMENTS WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY.
Device that translates brain waves or nerve impulses into patterns.
Painting on rapidly spinning cylinder — subliminal appreciation of art.
Controlled electromagnetic fields acting on tiny metal spheres to create simple artificial organisms and mimic real behavioural patterns.
Ultra sound beam used to activate multi-vane spindles instead of a cathode ray tube in picture screen.
MODERN TECHNOLOGY USED IN
ORIGINAL WAYS.
Artwork at back of refrigerated glass case. Spectators have to warm glass to view artwork.
Dramatic composition for oscilloscopes — one oscilloscope per character.
Motorized sculpture on wheels that follows spectators using infrared sensors.
Microwave chamber used to create art effects on materials put in it.
EXPERIMENTS WITH TRADITIONAL
TECHNOLOGY.
Steam operated computer.
Artificial ecological system constructed using a clockwork mechanism.
Sculpture made using transparent clay with light sources embedded within it.
Use of electricity conducting paint so that artwork becomes a working circuit.
USE OF BASIC SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENA.
Osmosis used to create multicoloured sculpture with tubes containing different coloured liquids at different concentrations.
Pictorial effects created using the different expansion rates of metal to enlarge or contract the imagery.
Invisible sculpture made with jets of compressed air.
Sound waves (music or speech) moving through heat haze in heated glass case.
THE CREATION OF ORGANIC ART.
Sculpture made from rapidly growing yeast.
Sculpture made from multi-grafting or graft chimaera.
Designs made with bacterial colonies.New organisms created by irradiation, chemical treatment, hybridization etc.
STUDIES IN CHEMISTRY.
Electrolysis used in the creation of artwork.
Cyclical chemical processes within enclosed container.
The automatic addition of chemical compounds over protracted time scale.
Chemical reactions used to mimic other art forms such as sonata form.
CONSTRUCTION OF DEVICES WHICH
ALTER AN ARTIST'S PERCEPTION.
Construction of multi-faceted insect eye to fit on video camera.
Plastic membrane that fits over face and produces optical effects when moved by breathing.Head attachment that automatically changes sounds into pictures or vice versa.
Helmet with video camera and sound amplifier attached. V.D.U. inside helmet.
CONSTRUCTION OF MULTI—SENSORY
ARTWORK.
Realistic zebra sculpture with the black and white stripes producing notes of different pitch when touched.
Semi-abstract Peacocks Tail which produces a multitude of different sounds when touched in various ways.
Invisible images perceived by having designs in heating wires embedded in blank panel.
Designs made with holes through which air is blown.GERALD SHEPHERD
NON - ELECTRONIC
1 Designs made with bacterial colonies en agar-agar covered panel. New colonies are constantly created from breath of spectators.
2) Wall hanging 3D arrangement of plastic strips which move by static electricity between work ad spectators.
3) Designs made by magnetizing inn filings into different alignments in slow drying resin.
4) Patterns made by the gradual seepage of coloured dyes through a transparent foam.
5) Painting made wilt materials that change colour in response to heat from spectators.
6) Parallax effects created with grid markings on clear plastic panels superimposed at varying distances.
7) Painting made with slowly evaporating paints. Different colours evaporate at different rates.
8) 3D network of springs made from materials that expand and contract at different rates.
9) Thin slice cut through radio set (or similar device) framed.
10) Painting across reeds - each of which vibrates in response to a different pitch. Music can be played in front of panel.
11) Designs made by the action of sunlight through a magnifying glass on paper.
12) Mosaic nude with sachets of chemicals which react in different ways in response to sunlight etc.
13) Mirror made from elastic material which distorts in response to speech of spectator.
14) Artwork consisting of fine powder between two pieces of clear membrane which continuously moves.
15) Patterns made by cracks formed in coloured mud.
16) Coloured stalactites and stalagmites made with circulating acrylic paint in foam structure
ELECTRONIC
1) Coloured liquids circulating through a system of transparent pipes.
2) Fragments of scientific papers kept in motion by air currents in glass case.
3) Coloured ball bearings continuously moving in electromagnetic fields.
4) Coloured wires moved by hidden electromagnets in various sequences in response to speech patterns.
5) Wave forms in mechanically agitated coloured water.
6) Painting on flimsy fabric attached to vibrating structure
7) Panel that lights up whenever it is touched.
8) Metal shapes suspended in air by electromagnets.
9) War games played using a complex array of electronic circuitry. Different components representing different forces and actions.
10) Visual art work of coloured beads on diaphragm of speaker with music playing.
11) Magnetic paint continuously moving between electric plates.
12) Patterns of heating wires embedded in material that changes colour according to temperature.
13) Shapes made from insulatory material in front of heating panel.
14) Paintings on connected series of cogs (motorized).
15) Panel of tightly packed lamps and photo resisters (or similar). The lamps go out representing shadow of spectator.
16) Accretion of charged plastic fragments on variably charged base.
GERALD SHEPHERD
I am a painter interested in science. I think it is vitally important for artists working in the Twentieth Century to reflect in their work the great strides which have taken place in science during the last hundred years. I am particularly fascinated by new. scientific ideas and how they can be utilized in an artistic context.
Especially interesting is the world of fundamental physics and cosmology. For example, the current multi-dimensional universe theories which have been formed in the attempt to unify the four basic forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force). These have exciting implications for the artistic representation of reality.
Following on from Einstein's four dimensional space-time continuum, we now have theories which suggest the universe may have between five and eleven dimensions. The extra dimensions compacted led in various ways.
For the last four hundred or so years artists. have- given the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface — using geometric and aerial perspective etc. - The comic strip introduces the temporal element, albeit in a rather naive way. But what about art works which seek to represent five dimensions or more?.
Based mainly on the concept of compacted dimensions,
I have listed below a number of possible solutions. I would like to offer
these for further discussion by members of the group.
I) Painting on an extremely elastic surface which has to be pushed into to reveal the full image.
2) Painting on crumpled up pieces of paper.
3) Painting on a rapidly vibrating panel.
4) Painting across a series of revolving vertical rods.5) Painting contained within the substance of a transparent malleable material.
6) Painting on a fine mesh through which the environment is visible.
7) Painting in segments of rapidly revolving disk.
8) Painting on a network of springs.
9) Painting on surfaces of many sided geometric shape. Each face equals a different dimension.
10) Paintings on series of superimposed panels which can be removed in sequence.
11) Painting across a series of tape loops. Each loop is moving (on revolving cylinders) at different speeds.
12) Paintings, superposed out of line, on a sandwich of transparent panels.
13) Painting on small balls rapidly moving in glass container.
14) Painting which continues into holes drilled into the picture surface.
15) Paintings on both sides of a translucent fabric which is continually moving.
16) Painting on a transparent canvas which is subsequently rolled up.
17) Paintings on a set of panels which intersect at various angles.
18) Painting on individual blocks which are later squashed and then fitted together.
19) Painting on a rough and irregular panel. Different pictures in hollows and bumps.
20) Painting in box. Slits in box allow spectators to see different distorted images of painting.
21) Painting projects from the wall. The surface is blank but the sides are divided into sections which represent different dimensional facets.
22) Layers of painted curtains surround the picture.
23) Painting on a loose canvas. small parts of canvas are tied up with string.
24) Paintings on the inner and outer surface of an array of transparent pipes attached to panel.
25) Multi-media 'painting' which divides the dimensions among the senses.
GERALD SHEPHERD
WHEN I FIRST CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF IONIST ART IN THE SEVENTIES I BEGAN TO JOT DOWN NOTES FOR ART WORK, OTHER PROJECTS AND SOURCES. THESE NOTES EVENTUALLY RAN TO SEVERAL THOUSAND PAGES - THE VAST MAJORITY DONE BETWEEN 1977 AND 1981.
I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO INCLUDE A FEW PAGES OF THESE IN THE NEWSLETTER. THEY WERE CHOSEN AT RANDOM AND ARE EXTREMELY UNEDITED!!!
Flags, arrangements of existing ones and invented ones. Ionist Flag —heraldry — Ionist heraldic design using electronic component shapes. Art work in semaphore, heliography etc. Coins, stamps etc. (collection as art!). Art work in morse code — binary code. Invention of secret codes and code breaking. Hieroglyphics, pictograms etc. ((you've already done this, berk!)) — deciphering as art—science process. Occult imagery — medieval imagery —armour and arms.
Whale songs, oscilloscope images, diagrams — ditto bird songs (other animal calls). Electric eel pulses. Glowworm light effects, spider webs, bird and fish nests. Insect and amphibian metamorphoses. Plant adaptive mechanisms and mutations — evolutionary study. Cell images, finger prints, bark rings/ fish scales, feathers — camouflage studies — footprints, bird egg patterning. Migration patterns on maps — biological processes in general (in lieutenant!) — fossils as initiating forms — future predictions of animal transformations. Population statistics — anatomy and/or pathology.
Crime detection as an art form. Military strategy, game rules — Historical research — teaching techniques. Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical study of famous art works and artists. Art pathology, music therapy — visual art therapy. Dance therapy or catharsis — gesticulation or vocal catharsis. Ballet based on animal mating rituals — tribal dancing! — tattoos and markings. Military march ballet. Martial music and the effect it has on the brain. Hypnosis as art form. Ballet for hypnotized people (picked at random). Ballet of breaking of plates, jumping through windows. Underwater ballet, underwater photography, optical effects. Diagrams of light rays — refraction and reflection of light — different types of lenses. Prism art. Fairground mirrors (what do you call them?)
Construction of kaleidoscopes (kaleidoscopes you can live in). Microscope art. Ballet seen through a telescope. Electron microscope images, imagery from similar devices. Ballet for cars at night, only their headlights showing. Torch art. Bonfire art — fireworks — smoke effects. Study of turbulence and aerodynamics using smoke and photography — coloured smoke —time delay photographs. Wind tunnel art gallery or theatre.
Star patterns and night sky photographs. Traces of meteors. Astrology as art—science fusion (with the emphasis on the former). Cloud shapes —effects of rain drops on prepared surface. Wave forms studied in liquid or viscous substance. Lightening, real and invented — Van Der Graaf Generator in gallery — study of static electricity effects — wall and floor suitably prepared, spectators wear special clothing.
Six inches of mud on gallery floor, record marks made by spectators. Photograph the gradual dilution of dyes in water. Radioactive sculpture (audience given Geiger counters and protective clothing).
Layer of glue on gallery floor, audience left to its own devices! Gallery where the paintings, walls and floor are wet paint. Water splashes photographed — tide movements. Coloured dyes in sea marking ocean current —smoke in atmosphere follows air movements. Hurricane art — whirlpools —volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes etc.
Sculpture arranged along sea edge. Flotsam — floating sculptures in sea. Dirigibles — flak patterns from anti-aircraft guns. Missile paths — tracer bullet ballet, searchlight ballet — corpses!
Audience locked in the gallery for the night. Audience invited to place their ink covered hands on ceiling — ink covered bare feet on floor.Gallery as gas chamber (not serious — critics only!). Burial as ballet —New Pompeii. lava flow art. Hot ash (instant sculptures).
Expedition to put sculpture on Everest. Expedition to put sculpture at the South Pole — expedition as art form (perhaps to Amazon basin) — painting onMoon (perhaps a giant mans face).
Chalk designs on Wiltshire downs. Ionist white horse — Ionist Stonehenge or Avebury avenues, (Rennet) earth mound and other stone works. Ionist Pyramid (numbered stones).
Battles as ballet — blow up Nelson's column — destruction as anti-art form. Art—science architecture.
The learning process studied. Film of children in prepared environments —selection of children photographed and interviewed on a yearly basis — rats in maze — construct environments and experiments for rats or ants — rats in gallery (live and dead — taxidermy as art) — work with dolphins or chimps.
Parascientific studies — experiments with plants — the ageing process studied — mental illness as art.
Ionist art in hospitals, rest homes, workshops — morgues! (syn. galleries!!) Duplication of classical scientific experiments in an art gallery context.
Photographic exhibition of flower forms, leaf shapes, bird plumage and fish markings. Art exhibition at Kew gardens — London Zoo.
New cave art, cave art with technology inspired designs (perhaps reproduced in fibreglass in gallery). New red Indian sand paintings (mathematical formulas).
Exhibition devoted entirely to an array of transducers and cathode ray oscilloscopes — each transducer dealing with a different (changing) physical quantity.
Exhibition where each art work represents a different element from the periodic table.
Exhibition in tunnels, on bridges, in air raid shelters — particularly in the shelter system built beneath London during the last war. Exhibition of rulers and measuring tapes. Exhibition of thermometers and barometers.
Exhibition of chemistry laboratory equipment. Exhibition of old physics laboratory apparatus.
Electronic component mosaic (working, non-working). Secondhand electronic equipment arrangements.
Exhibition of clocks and other time pieces. Exhibition of musical instruments or record players, tape recorders etc., each playing different piece of music, voice etc.
Archaeology as art. Exhibition at an excavation — gallery arranged as an exhibition site. Sculpture or painting cut into like an archaeological dig.
Exhibition at lighthouse, watermill, windmill. Painted designs on windmill sails. Exhibition at factory, power station, chemical works etc.
Integration of a science inspired work into a church or cathedral. science-art-religion combined.
Tension and compaction of various materials. Materials stretched to (or near) breaking point in gallery. Elastic sculpture. Figurative blancmange tableau.
Cookery as art. Sculpture made from food. Custard pie throwing private view, gallery photographed afterwards. Excrement art ((already been done)).
Inflatable sculpture sent through post from mail order catalogue. Ionist Art sent through post. Electronic devices in envelopes.
Art—science carnival float. Hire out sculptures on wheels —paintings on sails for yachts — designs for cars on self-adhesive sheets, ditto for aeroplane wings.
Tableau of computer terminals, TV sets, radios etc. Conversation between tape recorders on stage (each recorder a different character).
Art attachments designed to fit on electricity pylons to make them harmonize with their surroundings better.
Sculptures combined with living quarters for wild or tame animals (wild and tame art!) — animal environments — Ionist doggie homes — aviary designs. Sculptures to fit into aquariums — modern art backdrops for model railways.
to be continued....
GERALD SHEPHERD
THESE NOTES WERE CHOSEN AT RANDOM FROM MANY THOUSANDS I HAVE SCRIBBLED DOWN, MOSTLY BETWEEN 1977 AND 1981, CONCERNING IONIST ART AND SCIENCE-ART FUSION.
Array of differently coloured wind socks (colour plus air movements). Designs on air fields etc. Sculpture made to be pulled behind aeroplane (shape plus turbulence). Landing light patterns.
Huge fibre glass flowers correctly coloured and formed and arranged in gallery. Fish fin shapes made from metal tubing and translucent fabric.
Coloured liquids in weightless conditions. Artificial moon put in orbit. Material which creates coloured patterns when ejected into space and reentering the Earth's atmosphere.
The simulation of Venus's atmosphere in controlled conditions on Earth. Ditto Martian atmosphere. Coloured gas clouds in agitated air conditions.
Blank panel heated. Plain sculpture frozen. Empty gallery, but audience feel controlled air currents.
Gallery at the end of the pier. Sculpture on raft left to float free on ocean. Stage on platform in sea, audience watch from shore. Exhibition on oil rig. Designs sprayed onto the White Cliffs of Dover. Photograph from air path of object pulled across water by speedboat (then reverse procedure!).
Study of objects falling from aeroplane — the objects are made from different materials (movement plus air resistance). Sculpture descending from parachute. Free fall ballet. Underwater theatre — the Tempest acted in a water tank.
The construction of coloured fence enclosures. Coloured earth. Designs sprayed on growing corn, (these would change as the corn grows). Mini version of the last named on a head of hair (on a head of steam!). Make designs in earth with plough — with bulldozer (rubble art!).
Coloured brick patterns. Construction of art wall. New Hadrian's Wall.
Create raspberry coloured clouds. Make a cherry coloured lake. Drill holes in the ground. Construct pillars. Study of rock strata and earth movements.Dog breeding as art. Genetic engineering. Cryogenically treated people tableau. Comatose people tableau.
Vibrating platfom/stage/gallery. Designs made with pneumatic drill. Sculpture of hydraulic devices.
Grids, lattices, scaffolding, arrangements of ladders, arrangements of crosses, wires in space, tubes of coloured water, giant sand clocks, giant candles. artificial stalagmites and/or stalactites, springs in gallery, trellis work, coloured bails in transparent shapes, interior of bee hive magnified to fill gallery, honeycomb walls. Termite mounds in polished aluminium.
Giant birds nests made with differently coloured iron rods, plastic bubbles, exhibition of polythene bags, exhibition of door handles and latches, holes cut into walls and tables, giant spiders web in neon lights, steps, series of differently patterned translucent screens, various nets draped in gallery, net curtains, slatted wood, crazy paving, giant molecules in foam rubber, DNA strands in plastic strips, internal organs in polystyrene. Static explosions in stainless steel.
Arrangements of TV aerials, variations in leaf patterns in one species of plant, plumage variations in lovebirds. Arrangements of wire netting. Arrangements of barbed wire. Patterns of trenches. Marks made in earth with explosive. Plane trails as art patterns. String trails on floor. Vertical rope arrangements.
Integration of mythology and science. — myths represented by machines and optical devices etc. Historical and Literary subjects represented by machines and various other devices.
Exhibition of luminous drawings and/or sculpture in dark gallery. A Punch and Judy show using positive and negative charged abstract sculptures.
Vat in gallery where electroplating is occurring. Sculpture slowly lowered into vat of dye.
Mathematical calculations cover walls, floor and ceiling of gallery. Hole in sculpture is in line with a hole in painting and hole in wall. Infrared beam is shone through holes and sounds alarm when interrupted.
Wires wound round gallery walls and round abstract sculpture inside make a transformer.
Turn gallery floor into etching using acid. Turn gallery wall into giant photographic plate. Coloured gas clouds in gallery partially obscure paintings on walls and sculpture on floor.
Gyroscopic sculpture. Designs on a giant top.
Painter suffering from lead poisoning 'exhibited' next to his paintings and easel.
Designs made on specially prepared gallery surface by sunlight through a lense which replaces window. The sun's path is etched on floor and changes daily. A gallery with all glass walls. Use a periscope to view artwork in a secret chamber. Sculpture moving in Earth's magnetic field. Record melting of a figurative sculpture in furnace.
Night exhibition in a 'haunted' building. Art and the paranormal. Poltergeist ballet. Fusion event where representative from every country is invited to participate. Fusion event with every animal on Earth present. Plant version.
Nuclear transformations as art. Radioactive sculpture, painting (artist!). TV' s mummified and wrapped in bandages. Electronic equipment placed in shrines. Gallery turned into a place of worship for television sets.
Juxtaposition of real flowers and artificial flowers. Juxtaposition of portraits of people and real people. Juxtaposition of objects and photographs of objects. Pinned butterflies or pressed flowers interspersed with art works.
Futuristic costume designs. Fashion show in gallery setting. Clothes made from modern materials or having science inspired designs (ditto hairstyles or makeup). Gargoyles — art plus functional object.
Stuffed animals next to live ones. Interior environment in which fur coats are displayed, live animals scuttle about on floor. Painting at the back of aquarium or aviary.
Sculpture in giant translucent plastic eggs. Abstract sculpture with representational wings (new angel I).
Exhibition devoted to an exploration of the entire spectrum.
Art panels designed to be attached to the sides of railway carriages. The audience is invited to wait at various stations on the route.
An exhibition combining a history of science with a history of art. Science—art sandwich-board (science one side and art the other).
A silent music record for playing in libraries. A black light bulb for creating non-lighting effects.
Blank canvases, audience issued with hallucinatory drugs. Blank canvases, audience issued with brushes and paints.
Mechanical musical device playing in vacuum in glass case. Designs on a treadmill. — audience on treadmill! Floating coloured balls scattered in ocean to map currents. Different depth holes will measure difference in temperature. A flexible ruler draped down the Grand Canyon. Create an artificial Great Barrier Reef. Painted sea barriers.
A painting for displaying in a lift which produces psychedelic effects when the lift is in motion.
Developmental painting based on continental drift. Sculpture that gives an electric shock when touched. Sculpture that gives out a coloured light when touched. Sculpture that gives out various smells when stroked. Shaped sponges placed in tank of coloured liquid which is soaked up to varying degrees. Sculpture fired from cannon (landing in net) (not landing in net).
Non-developmental painting based on absolute zero. Designs made from pebbles, gem stones, flint flakes, slivers of wood etc. Designs made from various types of fungi, lichen, bacteria etc. Sand dune patterns made in wind tunnel. Trampoline floor for gallery.
Fire sculptures — different fires in gallery setting, each burning a different substance.- The subsequent ash would be exhibited in a different gallery. Exhibition dedicated to water and its effects.
Gallery has specially made slippery floor, replicas of Leaning Tower of Pisa are placed on floor and mimicked by accidentally eliding audience. Explosions photographed. Audience given specialty designed glasses which modify in various ways pictures on wall and sculpture on floor.
Exhibition of blueprints. Exhibition of bones (even the artist s!). Painting made with permanently wet paint — continuously and accidentally modified. A painting in permanently wet paint behind glass.
Tear gas in gallery, laughing gas in gallery (nerve gas in gallery). Battle of Waterloo re-enacted using machines as protagonists. Last scene of Swan Lake duplicated by giant machine.
Ultrasonic music composition for dogs (inaudible to humans). Stereoscopic works. Switch one side of gallery, light bulb the other, the entire gallery floor is covered by cable which makes designs on the floor.
Exhibition on a building site — audience walk up ladders and along scaffolding.GERALD SHEPHERD
Contrary to common sensory perception, time is
not necessarily a unidirectional flow of events where the past is simply
past and the future invariably follows the present. This is certainly not
true at the sub-atomic level of existence where time's one way arrow is
the exception not the rule. Apart from some oddball happenings like K-Meson
decays, fundamental particles - in fact fundamental physics per se - do
not distinguish between past and future; or even perhaps between cause
and effect. Change the sign in a diagrammatical depiction of this reality
and you immediately change the direction in time. A positron (anti-matter
equivalent of the electron) moving forward in time is identical to an electron
moving back. Ditto anti-proton etc. etc. Past and future are in consequence
interchangeable entities (if indeed they exist at all) Artists are in the
business of finding representations of the world or forming new models
for reality. So how should they go about representing this 'New-Old Reality?
Well it could of course be modeled in time based media such as cinema with
comparative ease (particularly if one uses Everyday/Everyman imagery).
But what about its representation in modern (i.e.. not figuratively symbolic)
sculpture? I have listed below a few preliminary ideas which others might
find of interest and may wish to extend.
1) Vertical sheet of transparent elastic material, with embedded designs, which can be pushed or pulled either way.
2) Designs on the inside of an oblong box, which is pivoted on an axis perpendicular to the box, which is viewed at the open ends.
3) Objects on the perimeter of a vertical wheel which can be spun both ways. The pedestal holding the wheel can also be rotated.
4) Vertical strips on horizontal turntable can be spun round static central object in either direction.
5) Sculpted pendulum attached to the bottom of a sculpted pendulum moving in a different direction.
6) Vertical trampoline made from a strong mesh that 'spectators' can throw themselves into (or be pushed!) from both sides.
7) Corridor constructed from permeable fabric. Coloured dust is blown from one side of the corridor onto opposite fabric and then blown back again. Creating different patterns each time.
8) Sculpture designed to be walked into and touched from the inside (the outer surface is not visible to the audience). Hot or cold air is blown at different areas of the sculpture from the outside in ever changing sequences. The spectators feel warming and cooling areas of sculpture.
9) System of pipes, pumps and clear plastic balloons laid on floor and set up so that the balloons take in (blow up) and let out (go down) coloured smoke in various forward and backward moving sequences.
10) Two sets of rib like systems of transparent flexible pipes with coloured liquid circulating in opposite directions in each set. Each set can be partially filled into the other or tightly enmeshed.
11) Designs on the outside of two transparent spheres. One sphere is fitted inside the other. The two spheres spin in different directions.
12) Magnetic putty is continually pulled in different directions by changing electromagnetic field.
13) Perforated designs on canvas strip mounted between two pulleys which can be pulled in either direction.
14) Spring attached to floor continually moving up and down in intermittent electromagnetic field. The entire apparatus is enclosed in transparent cylinder which is marked off with a series of numbered lines.15) Spectators stand (or sit) in transparent lift. Murals go all the way round and up the lift shaft. Spectators can operate lift in both directions.
16) Assemblage of vertical transparent tubes in which coloured balls randomly fall down or get sucked up by small vacuum pumps. The tubes are fitted close together and are of different lengths.17) Loose patterned fabric is attached to vibrating mechanism which causes waves to move back and forth across the fabric.
18) Large upright and free standing metal minor with a written message on one side repeated on the other in 'mirror writing'.
19) Numbered translucent spheres, lit from inside, are fitted around the perimeter of a blank panel. The spheres light up in randomly reversing sequences. Spectators are allowed to write down the direction of the light sequence they are watching on the panel.
20) A thin canvas strip is attached at one end to a vertical pole. Designs on each side of the strip move in opposite directions.
GERALD SHEPHERD
These notes were scribbled down some years ago to explore ways of combining the teaching of art and science to primary school children. At that time science was not taught in primary schools and I wondered if projects such as these might form the basis for simple scientific investigation.
1) Paint is dripped on paper circles on revolving turntable (either hand or electrically operated). The turntable can be spun at different speeds. The speed can be checked with a watch.
2) Coloured sand or iron filings etc. is scattered on vibrating panel. The frequency of vibration can be altered. The sand could also be scattered on glue covered paper on vibrating panel.
3) Shallow fray of plaster of paris can be mechanically agitated when the plaster is wet to reveal interesting wave forms which will set. The frequency of the device agitating the plaster can be altered.
4) Coloured inks can be introduced into the bottom of jars of water and left to diffuse through the water.
5) Coloured ink can be introduced into swirling water (from small electric motor).
6) Paper is covered with fugitive inks - in an abstract pattern - then a figurative template is placed on paper which is then placed in the sun. Only the colours not covered by the template will fade.
7) Drawing designs in paper using scorch marks made by focusing sunlight through a magnifying glass.
8) Using a fan to make patterns with coloured sand on glue covered paper.
9) Making a windmill with six sails. Three of the sails are painted in the three primary colours (one colour per sail) and the other three sails are painted in the three secondary colours.
10) Using a machine on wheels that drips paint at regular intervals. Paintings can be produced by pushing the machine (at different speeds) across large sheets of paper.
11) The construction of Punch and Judy puppets using small magnets (powerful ones as their head, hands and feet). The magnets could repel each other.
12) A mother and child version of the above - the magnets would attract each other.
13) Paintings done on balloons which can then be blown up enlarging the images.
14) Paintings done on parachutes, kites and paper aeroplanes etc.
15) The construction of a rag puppet with an unbreakable mirror as a face. The puppet could be used to illustrate simple optical laws concerning mirrors. Different types of mirrors could be used.
16) The construction of funny masks which contain various types of lenses fro eyes. It might be possible to explore the various properties of convex and concave lenses.
17) The construction of model flying saucers which incorporate telescope lenses. Viewed from beneath the world would look larger, viewed from above it would look smaller.
18) The construction of simple spaceman helmets. Two types are made. One type, supposed to be used by aliens from a very hot planet, are made from thick black felt. The other type, supposed to be used by aliens from a very cold planet are made from thin white cotton. The helmets are worn by children in the playground in various weather conditions including sunny days.
19) Two types of hat monster explore the same ideas as above.
20) Dolls made from transparent from transparent polythene bags. One or two bags are used for the body. Different bags are used for head and limbs. The bags could be filled with material such as coloured dyes.
21) Glove puppets made from material which is capable of building up large charges of static electricity. The puppet would attract various things that had an opposite charge.
22) Construction of a 'monsters tummy' with transparent sides, black base and silver top. If this contained small pieces of silver paper and was placed in sun convection currents could be studied. It would contain water.
23) Oil trapped between two sheets of transparent plastic could be positioned in window. Diffraction patterns could be studied.
24) A face could be constructed with light bulbs for eyes and a small (or large!) siren for a mouth. These could be activated by switches and powered by a small battery.
25) Electroplating could be done using a small battery as a power source. Designs could be made if parts of the cathode plate were covered.
26) If the plate in the above was changed to an anode. Electropolishing designs could be made.
27) A 'fairy's tummy' could be made using a glass jar in which crystals are grown from super-saturated solutions.
28) Simple designs could be made using both white and black paper. If these were later put in the sun, temperature changes could be noted.
29) Simple designs could be made by painting the rims of different size wheels and then rolling them across a large sheet of paper. If a mark was made on the wheel rim the different distances made by the wheels making one complete revolution could be compared.
30) Designs could be made with iron filings by drawing a magnet underneath a sheet of paper - perhaps covered with a slow acting glue - on which the iron filings are scattered.
31) Monsters could be made from different materials such as cork, metal and stone etc. and the difference in weight then noted.
32) A camera obscura could be made in the classroom which shows the image on a white screen from which the children can copy it.
33) Imitation fossil casts could be made using everyday things of the twentieth century as the pretend fossils. Plaster of paris could be used as the mould or cast.
34) Impressions of children's feet could be made in wet plaster etc. Comparisons could be made between walking, hopping, jumping (messy!) etc.
35) Dolls could be made which had springs for arms. Different weights attached to the springs hands would stretch them by different amounts which could be measured.
36) Marbles could be kept moving by vibrating panel, simulating liquids, earthquakes etc.
37) Figurative designs could be made by pasting coloured electric wire onto cardboard. A bulb could be fitted at one end and a battery at the other.
38) Stick people could be made using thermometers (filled with alcohol only!) for their heads and bodies. If attached to card, arms and legs could be painted. The people could live in different environments.
39) Faces could be painted on clocks or little figures could replace the clock hands.
40) Plasticine rabbits are made using tree leaves for ears. The ears are replaced every week and changes in shape and colour could be noted.
41) Two types of scale figures are made. One type is made from a porous material like sponge and the other in a non-porous material (like plasticine?). If the figures are soaked in water and then put on scales or a model see-saw, children can observe what happens as the water evaporated from the sponge figure.
42) Patterns can be made by arranging test tubes containing chemical having different colours.
43) Designs can be made with invisible ink - later made visible.
44) A family made from plasticine - mummy, daddy and baby could each have precise weights (100 gms, 50 gms and 25gms for example). If a weighing machine was turned into a dolls house, various combinations of weight could be explored.
45) Gloves could be made with magnets attached to finger tips. North pole for thumb and south poles for the fingers. The children could explore their environment, touching different metals etc.
46) Gloves could be made which had metal strips on tips of thumb and forefinger, with a wire running through the glove between the two. A LED could be attached to the top of the glove. The children could explore their environment, touching various things to see if they conducted electricity.
47) Puppet versions of the above gloves could be made.
48) Badges could be made with materials that change colour according to temperature or light conditions.
49) Masks could be made with special lenses which duplicate how animals, flies for example, see the world.
50) Plasticine islands are made in trays of coloured liquid. Rulers as palm tree trunks measure the decrease in water height as the liquid evaporates.
51) Little figures are made from
various materials such as balsa wood and plasticine etc. The figures would
be placed in frays of water and comparisons made as regards what sinks
or floats. Little boats could be constructed to carry various loads. Marks
would be made on the sides of the
boats hulls.
52) Windmills could be made that pull a weight up on a chain after a certain number of revolutions. Different weights and different wind conditions could be explored.
53) Little figures are made from a variety of materials such as mud, stone, plaster etc. etc. These would be then placed outside and examined every morning for changes.
54) Cardboard sheets with designs cut out of them are pasted up in the window so that they cast beams of light into the classroom. The light beams would be observed as they move during the day.
55) Stick figures could be made from wire and placed in water. Refraction could be observed ,as can the changes in the material as it rusts.
56) Dolls made with bi-metal arms and legs bow and curtsy when the temperature rises.
57) Figures made from various materials (monsters and fairies) are attached to pieces of elastic and hung from the ceiling. Monsters descend further than fairies.
58) Little figures are made from colourless sponge material. The sponge figures are then placed in trays of coloured water.
59) Evaporating versions of the above.
60) Wave forms could be explored by painting skipping ropes in serpent colours with children wiggling them from either end.
61) Face made with compasses as eyes and a bar magnet for a month.
62) Tuning fork used to create patterns in wet paint.
63) A container holding dripping paint is attached to a pendulum. Different oscillations make different patterns on paper on floor.
64) Horizontal springs hold vertical paint brushes. The springs are stretched then released, making interesting patterns on the paper. The paper could also be moved.
65) Model landscape made from springs with nuts and bolts trees etc. Dolls made from scientific devices. Making designs with electronic components. Snap cards made with science images. Snakes and ladders game using scientific laws.
66) Use dolls and a mini-theatre set to explain the concept of parallax.
67) Make designs out of different sized cogs. Explore ratios.
68) Weaving done with electric wire. Shapes made with electric wire. The wire is then connected to a battery and the subsequent magnetic field will move compass needles, make patterns with iron filings etc.
69) Faces painted on pieces of rubber which can later be stretched or compressed. This would illustrate tensile and compressibility properties and principles.
70) Dolls made with hair that moves under influence of static electricity. Dolls made which themselves move by static electricity forces.
71) Dolls made with magnetic limbs can dance in electromagnetic fields.
72) The construction of simplified
models of famous inventions or scientific experiments. Make models of factories
using everyday materials.
73) Coloured bead patterns made on operating horizontal loudspeaker. Coloured sand scattered on speaker.
74) Make dolls out of wax which will then change shape when heated. Dolls made from springs and material that expands when heated.
75) Metal puppets can be moved from behind screen with magnets. Dolls which can be opened out to reveal internal organs. Polythene doll in which plants can be grown. Dolls that move according to changes in air pressure.
76) Make a board game based on electronic circuitry. A radio circuit playground game. A burglar alarm board game. Make giant electronic circuit board diagram on the floor so that the children can act as the components. Balls could be passed around to represent the electric current. Electronic ball game.
GERALD SHEPHERD
A series of images along wall in darkened gallery. The images are lit by spot lights (possibly of various colours) in sequence.
Images on free standing clear acrylic (etc.) panel which is illuminated by constantly changing patterns of coloured lights.
Images on inner wall of tunnel (or large box) through which (or into which) spectators must move. Light shines from outside through slits in box.
Small sculptures/assemblages or collections of objects in glass cases, lit in varying sequences and accompanied by different sounds.
Paintings on gallery wall mimic window arrangements, posters, road signs etc. The gallery is laid out to represent a street or similar.
Images on a revolving drum, arrangement of wheels (cogs etc.), multi-sided moving shape or canvas loop.
Construction in metal and machine parts that mimics/represents a fight using the motion of it parts.
Construction or machine which continually moves images, or parts of images, into spectators view.
Imagery on "case" which fits over mobile machine — the machines can crash into one another. If the "case' is made of canvas instead of wood or metal the mechanism would continually distort the canvas and thus the imagery.
A painting continues across debris and rubbish laid out along the base of the gallery walls (or across another panel covered with broken bottles etc.)
Abstract diorama in long glass tubes or spheres.
Repeated image (representing the human figure) on canvas stretched over various (everyday) objects.
Paintings on wall represent the pages of a comic. Or free standing giant comic with images on clear plastic pages.
Comic images on translucent material draped over abstract objects. Or structures in repeated wooden alcoves mimic comic pages.Repeated representation of human being with different words scrawled over each repeat.
Cartoon strip on clear plastic with each square superimposed rather than running consecutively.
Imagery on series of hanging fabric strips occupying a space which can be violated by pushing through them.
Imagery on plates that move by hidden magnets, colliding with each other and continually making different combinations.
A series of video screens packed tightly together. Each screen represents a comic strip square which shows a sequence of alternative action elements so that the story continually changes.
Imagery on small panels which are moved to form various playing card hands. A tarot card version.
Gallery divided into strips which also cut across paintings.
Sequential painting along surgical bandage wound round vaguely human shaped iron framework.
Painted images behind plastic membrane through which coloured liquids seep.
Image series hidden by sequence of doors or film clappers which have to be opened in turn.
Images on arrangement of cubes which can be mechanically moved to continuously alter sequence.
Imagery repeated within human silhouettes in sequence of unconscious poses.
Repeated Mona Lisa reproductions. Each repeat is mutilated in different ways.
Sculpture designed to be hit by sledge hammer in a recorded sequence. Sculpture designed to be cut into sections with saw.
Imagery over sequence of plaster casts of dangerous objects. The gallery is lit by a strobe light.
GERALD SHEPHERD
Performers behind a large screen which represents computer v.d.u.. Performers hold coloured rope which becomes oscilloscope or computer screen imagery.
Performers illuminated by a series of spotlights. Scientific designs are painted on the spotlight lenses.
Performers stand on panels which are mechanically moved.Performance observed by a series of different devices - infrared, ultra-sound, radar, TV camera etc. V.d.u. screens form part of the performance.
Performance viewed through different types of transparent/translucent material. Materials can be arranged vertically on perimeter of revolving stage.
Performers as some of the components in giant machine -perhaps man-powered computer.
Performers interact with holographic representations of themselves.
Lasers extend the lines of structure in performance space. Performers interact with structure and light beams.
Moving system of mirrors and/or lenses which continually fragment or change apparent position of performers.
Performers between structures which change colour or shape in response to performers movements.
Performance within neon light framework. Or performers wear neon light designs on their costumes.
Stage and scenery change via a computer in response to performers movements.
Performers carry video cameras and perform to an audience of video screens.
Performers move within giant clockwork machine.
Performers wear costumes which interact with props in basic ways - static electricity for example.
Performers move within a web of information gathering wires etc.
Performance reflected in shapes made from different types of steel.
Performers interact with computer generated images.
GERALD SHEPHERD