The Creation Process
What is a Kinetic Sculpture?
Kinetic Sculptures are all-terrain human-powered art sculptures that are engineered to race over road, water, mud and sand. Kinetic sculptures are amazing works of art; many are animated with moving parts like blinking eyes, opening mouths, heads that move side to side and up and down.
Kinetic sculptures are usually made from what some people consider “junk,” but one man’s junk is another racer’s raw material. Each Kinetic Sculpture is a work of art and each racing team has its own theme.
The teams consist of pilots, pit crew and workers. Kinetic pilots pedal the sculpture and steer, the pit crew assists the pilots in transforming the vehicle for the various elements and fixing mechanical issues, and the workers, well, they do whatever is needed for the team to get glory. The teams give out “bribes” to their adoring spectators, judges and the Rutabaga Royalty.
Spectators are encouraged to follow the race on their bikes (obeying all traffic laws that apply please). Seeing these marvels of art and engineering turns many people on to bike culture and reminds people how much fun riding your bike can be … especially if you’re dressed up like a bee or a chicken or a fly! Who knew?
Quite a few of the sculptures are created in The Kinetic Sculpture Lab … not sure where it’s located. That’s probably because it all needs to be a closely guarded secret while the machines are being constructed. We’ve pulled a couple of pictures from the Lab’s website to give an idea of how much fun they have, and there are a whole lot more on their website, which is way cool and a lot of fun on its own. You don’t see the construction from start to finish, but you do see some of the shop and a few of the machines at various stages of development. This website is definitely worth a visit, if only for the jumpin’ homepage and the cleverness of the design. These people are warped … and that’s what qualifies them to be part of The Lab!
