Kinetic Art: Sculpture Displaying Strata and Changing Forms in Granular Materials

The author’s kinetic sculptures were inspired by his observations made while operating an air-track drill on the Alaska Pipeline construction project in 1975. Day after day he watched silica sand and other materials being blown out of drill holes and falling to form mounds having stratifications. The stratifications and the slope angles of the mounds are dependent primarily on such factors as the size, shape, roughness and density of the individual grains that form the mounds. This knowledge enables some understanding of the physical characteristics of the type of kinetic sculptures made by the author. The granular materials employed and the construction of the hourglass-type Plexiglas objects that contain them are described. The article concludes with general comments on this type of sculpture and the author’s plans for future work.