Kinetic Sculpture Museum: Sea Anemone A Coral Reef shows life and breath without having a face. It is a rigid structure with no control of the movement of its tentacles. The path of currents in the Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean vary greatly. They cause an ever changing and constant movement on the floor. The creatures tend to be responsive but not conscious to the life around them; similar to phototropism. Sea Anemones become a volumetric, habitable space with lots of movement and a home to some. When first analyzing the path of the currents I noticed the different, yet adjacent, paths first. I applied these to the over arching sculpture, the path. Then movement was added through a 3-D factor after studying what happens to the tentacles under the conditions of different pressures of water movement. The result was a fluid shape that visitors could move under and look at from above. As somebody moves under the structure and then out in to the open space a compress and release feeling occurs; the individual tentacles took on this life form also. When a bit map was applied to the sculpture covered in tentacles the path of the current became compressed as it “moves� over the human and is then released into the open as it moves up the wall. Likewise, the tentacles are packed closely together and follow the current over the obstacle and then move freely and grow taller with the release from the pressure of the current. The density of the tentacles decrease as the sculpture moves from right to left and up the wall. The basic structure of a tentacle was created from a spline. It follows the rule that if the sculpture is thin and densely packed then the tentacle is close to its base and short. If it is open and wide then the tentacle is standing tall, long and angled out to the side to indicate free movement. The whole space is a physical experience where somebody can feel as if their movement through the space and an invisible current is what’s causing the tentacles to move how they are. The structure and materials of the tentacle are meant to be light and fluid to create movement even through a nonmoving sculpture. Like a fish is drawn to the anemone for protection, a visitor is drawn to the sculpture to experience movement through the space and interact with it.
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