Paolo Salvagione’s Rope Fountain at Contemporary Jewish Museum’s, exhibit “NEAT: New Experiments in Art & Technology” , San Francisco,October 15 – January 17, 2016
Mimicking water movements with the random flux of stiffly controlled rope, fed through a 3D printed housing with gears and machinery… the piece tantalizes just as a real water fountain would, if not more! The fluidity of its action is utterly mind-boggling. It’s a sculptural masterpiece with its unpredictable movements while entirely mechanical, it relays a feeling of something organic.
The challenge, how does one present 50’s synchronized swimming, or water works like the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas, without water. Pushing string with a motor is not a new idea. Adding servo motors and a microcontroller to create automated and interactive installation is what I was looking to do during my residency at Autodesk’s new facility on Pier 9 http://www.instructables.com/id/String-Fountain/