Kinetic Sculpture: Laser and Other Light Sources in Plexiglas Constructions

Leoiinro, Vol. 9, pp. 295-299. Pergamon Press 1976. Printed in Great Britain KINETIC SCULPTURE: LASER AND OTHER LIGHT SOURCES IN PLEXIGLAS CONSTRUCTIONS Neva Delihas* 1. For the past seven years I have used Plexiglas sheet as the primary material for constructing sculptures. My aim is to produce objects that are characterized simultaneously by a feeling of structural strength and by an illusion of nonmateriality. Color plays an important role, since the colors that one sees in them depend on the passage of light through two or more sheets of differently colored Plexiglas. In the period 1970-1974 I constructed five series of works that are typified by an angular, hard-edge quality (Figs. 1 and 2). I provided interior illumination with clear incandescent lamps ranging from 15 to 60 w in some of the works. 2. Since 1974 I have been constructing kinetic sculpture. These pieces are motor-driven and incorporate a device that produces a laser beam. For example, ‘Laser Construction I’ is a kinetic sculpture consisting of a peripheral arrangement of diffraction gratings, Fresnel lenses, clear Plexiglas rods, and clear and translucent Plexiglas plates within which two prisms rotate at a fixed speed. A laser beam issuing from a unit mounted in the base of the sculpture is maintained in a fixed direction upward onto one of the prisms and is refracted and reflected onto the other prism and the surrounding plastic components forming delicate evanescent red patterns in the sculpture and on the surfaces in a darkened room. An outline of the sculpture as seen from above is shown in Fig. 3, where the components, indicated by number, are: four Plexiglas rods (1); an aluminumcoated acetate diffraction grating bent and joined into the form of a cylinder (2); three translucent Plexiglas plates (3); five clear Plexiglas plates (4); a clear acetate diffraction grating bent and joined into the form of a cylinder (5); one acetate sheet containing 25 Fresnel lenses bent to form a curved wall (6); two clear acetate sheets bent and joined into the form of a cylinder (7); zone (8) in which a right-angle prism revolves (the prism stands upright such that its triangular cross section is in the horizontal plane and its centroid falls on the axis of rotation); zone (9) in which an amici, or roof, prism [l] revolves (the triangular cross section is in the horizontal plane and the prism is supported by a clear Plexiglas rod in line with its centroid). This sculpture is enclosed in a clear Plexiglas box (30 x 46 x 48 cm) with a white Plexiglas floor and is supported on a base containing the 0.5 mw helium-neon *Sculptor living at 25 Locust Rd., Brookhaven, NY 11719, U.S.A. (Received 14 Aug. 1975.) Fig. 1. ‘Planes,No. ll’, Plexiglas, 30 x 23 x 20 cm, 1971. Fig. 2. ‘Cubes,No. 3’, Plexiglas, two cubes, 15 x 15 x 15 cm each, 1972. 298 Kinetic Sculpture: Laser and Other Light Sources in Plexiglas Constructions 299 Fig. 3. Sketch of ‘Laser Construction, I’, (outline as seen from above). laser unit, two 1 revlmin synchronous motors on whose axes the prisms are mounted and associated electrical components. I obtained from the Edmund Scientific Co., Barrington, New Jersey, U.S.A. the laser unit (No. 7961), the acetate diffraction gratings (Nos. Reflection 50,201 and Transmission 40,267) and the sheet of Fresnel lenses (No. 60,811). Kinetic art involving the use of laser beams reflected from moving parts has been described in earlier articles in Leonardo [2, 31. A second kinetic work ‘Black Light and Laser Construction ’ (Fig. 4, cf. color plate) consists of a Plexiglas box, in which are mounted two concentric Plexiglas spheres, with a cylindrical Plexiglas object having radial spines enclosed within the inner sphere. The spheres rotate at 1 rev/min. Positioned around the spheres are components of clear and translucent Plexiglas sheet, thin white Plexiglas rod and a mirrored Plexiglas grill. The base below the sculpture contains the motor and a 0.5 mw helium-neon laser unit. As in the previous work, the laser beam is projected upward into the sculpture and is reflected from the various parts...