Yellow Spiral

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2009 – 8 ‘x 8′ x 25’ tall 12,000 yellow beads, string, wire, aluminum, steel, three motors. 

In 2009 I was invited to give a talk and show some work at Poptech, in Camden, Maine. The conference is held in a beautiful old opera house, and we decided that a Spiral Wave would look good, but the one I had was both too small for the space, and yet too big to fit through the door. So I built this version making some changes: It’s over eight feet in diameter, but all of the aluminum arms hinge so it nestles inside of a smaller traveling crate. The double layer vortex is made with 12,000 12mm facetted beads strung on stainless wire. Besides the rotation and undulation, I added a third motor to control the height of the entire bottom wave. This way the top mechanics could stay fixed to the ceiling, while the bottom could lower into the opera house, and then climb back up so to avoid the theater’s projection system. Currently the Yellow Spiral is on display at Meyer Sound, in Berkeley.

Here’s my PopTech talk