How This Guy Builds Mesmerizing Kinetic Sculptures

[soft music]

I'd like it to be relaxing, calming, and amusing.

I would like people to be a little bit amazed

to figure out how they work,

to solve the problem of how it works.

My name is David Roy, I'm a kinetic sculptor.

I've been doing it for, in excess of 40 years.

[Narrator] Roy's kinetic sculptures are a mesmerizing feat

of artistry in engineering.

A single wind can provide hours of entertainment.

[Roy] Some of them create tension,

but some of them are just something you can sit,

like you would watch a fire and just get lost in the flames.

[Narrator] And he's made a lot of them over the years.

The different designs, there's over 300

and the number of pieces, because they make additions

is 7000, something like that.

[Narrator] Each one of Roy's pieces

is entirely mechanically driven, no motors, no electronics.

And his degree in physics comes in handy

when explaining how they work.

You start with an energy source.

I use a constant force spring now,

I initially started with a weight drive.

[Narrator] Each is controlled by what's called

an escaping mechanism,

a device that releases energy incrementally.

It's similar to what you might find inside a clock.

So the mechanism initially is locked

so that the weight can't fall, spring can't unwind.

[Narrator] When that mechanism is unlocked,

it releases a bit of energy,

which in turn moves a second device, often a rotating wheel.

That device creates motion,

but it also re-triggers the escapement

releasing a bit more energy and restarting the cycle.

And that's the essence of an escapement,

controlled release of energy that's self sustaining

until it runs out of energy and you have to wind it up.

And nothing is perpetual. [laughs]

[Narrator] But they're lasting.

There is a large group of people who say

is it perpetual motion?

And of course, I was schooled in physics

and I know that that isn't possible.

So they're not.

[Narrator] One of the key laws of Physics,

is the conservation of energy.

Which basically says the amount of energy

you put into a system is exactly the amount you get out,

one way or another.

That the user puts energy in by winding them up,

and then the energy comes out in the motion,

which is the part I want.

But another way is in the sounds,

that it takes energy to create the sound.

But most of it, a lot of it gets lost in heat,

due to friction, where the things are rotating and rubbing.

[Narrator] Roy is tinkered with different mechanisms

and materials to try to curtail some of that energy loss.

So that's where it appears perpetual

only because I work really hard

to reduce friction and sound.

[Narrator] Roy has always had a strong grasp

of the science and the mechanics behind his work.

But he needed a little help with the artistry.

I mean, you can make a neat thing

but you have to make it work visually.

And that was probably the hardest

for me to learn over the years.

And that was my mentor and tutor my wife.

[Narrator] In fact, it was David's wife Margie,

who sparked his initial interest in kinetics sculpture.

Margie was a sculpture major

at the Rhode Island School of Design.

And she made a project that is two cogs and wouldn't chain.

And she put it on the wall, and she said,

This is my sculpture and I said,

You can make a machine and call it a sculpture?

And she looked at me, she said, Of course

and I said Okay.

So it was that idea that you could make wooden machines

and call them sculpture

that totally re-channeled my creative ideas

from the science world, and the engineering world

to the art world.

And it was all brand new and very exciting.

[Narrator] And what started as a hobby

quickly became a full fledged business.

Most people, and I have to admit,

I didn't think it was a long term thing.

It was something we were doing 'cause we could

we had no obligations and I was playing,

I was having a great time.

[Narrator] Decades later,

Roy's still making and selling kinetic sculptures.

And his continued passion is to due to one thing.

I like to solve problems that I dream up,

I created the first sculptures,

and then they were noisy and annoying.

[metal clanking]

And I wanted to make them quiet.

So then I had to develop a mechanism that was quiet.

[Narrator] And he did in a piece called anticipation.

But the problem solving didn't stop there.

Getting longer run times has been

one of the challenges that I enjoy.

The first pieces, they ran for 20 minutes, 25 minutes.

When I got that up to an hour, I thought I was in Nirvana.

And then it got to three hours.

This is over years, this didn't happen quickly.

The current piece, the longest one I've run

is probably runs for 48 hours, 50 hours.

[Narrator] But there's a cost to these long run times.

What gets you there really long run times

is really slow motion, which you know, it can be nice,

but it just isn't as entertaining.

[Narrator] In fact, that's another challenge

Roy has set for himself over the years,

to get his sculptures to produce

all kinds of different motion.

The initial ones were simple motion,

just creating the motion.

As I gained control, I developed ones that create patterns

and optical patterns.

And there's basically two circular wheels

going opposite directions or the same direction

depending on the pattern.

The next category that came, were more the floating motion.

I call that the bird motion.

And that's where you'll get a motion up and down,

back and forth, but straight line motion or spiral motion.

Mixed amongst those I've tried to do other ones

that create randomness so that your optical pattern

doesn't stay the same, it changes.

[Narrator] These days, Roy is focused

on creating chaotic motion in his pieces.

[Roy] Chaotic motion is motion that changes

at unpredictable intervals.

So it can go fast, it can go slow,

but you can't tell when that's gonna happen.

And so chaotic motion, that's a term that's well defined,

it's used in physics, it's used in engineering,

but to try to use it in art and to create a chaotic motion

is extremely challenging.

[Narrator] Roy was able to deliberately create

chaotic motion for the first time a few years ago,

in a piece aptly named chaos.

And I'm working in other ones now trying to use

what I learned from that and to push the envelope.

What can I do next?

[Narrator] Building one of these sculptures

can be a slow and complicated process.

The initial designs float around in my head.

So there's a lot of daydreaming, a lot of thinking.

[Narrator] Next, Roy sketches out his design

on a computer.

By drawing the illustrator, and I animate,

usually in Adobe After Effects.

[Narrator] Animating the piece before building it

helps Roy understand what the sculptures patterns

will look like.

There's also another program, it's called working model.

I use it to calculate the center of mass

of complicated arrangements and parts.

[Narrator] That calculation is critical

to getting the balance right,

so that the sculpture moves in the intended way

[Roy] The trouble with the program

is it doesn't exist anymore.

[Narrator] At least it doesn't for Mac.

There hasn't been a current version for years.

But Roy has a workaround.

I buy really old iBooks,

which are the last computers that would run it.

So that is actually a key program,

but it's one I live in fear

that all my old computers are gonna die one day

and it won't work anymore

and I'll probably retired at that point.

[Narrator] Roy tinker's in these computer programs

until he's satisfied with the overall design.

Then he sends a file over to a local woodworker

who cuts out some of the individual parts on a CNC machine.

The rest of it all has to be done by hand.

The basic tools are drill press, Sanders, and bandsaw.

And then there's all kinds of hand tools,

hammers and handrails and all of that.

[Narrator] Roy uses these tools to build small parts

like pulleys and levers, as well as to smooth out

and finish off the larger machine cut pieces.

Once all the pieces are finished and stained

Roy then assembles and test the sculptures.

All of the large wooden parts have to be balanced

because wood is not uniform.

I have developed techniques,

where I use tiny little brass weights

that are embedded in the back to get things to balance.

The assembly probably is where I spend most time.

And then also very important is testing.

So I have large walls.

I put up the sculptures and I leave them running for days.

And I wanna get all the bugs out before a customer gets it.

So testing is also a big part

of the assembly and making process.

[Narrator] One of Roy's new sculptures

is in this phase of production.

He's been using tape and small press weights

to tinker with the balance.

Eventually I get an intuitive feel,

but the only way to get that is by spending hours

adding weight than standing and staring at it.

My wife laughs I just stand around

and stare at sculptures all day.

But that's how I learn and get a feel for what they need.

[Narrator] After a sculpture is assembled,

perfectly balanced in quality control,

there's still one final step.

So a big part of the design, and the work, is naming.

And we have a list that we have kept,

of all different names that we've thought of over the years,

we must have two or 300 names that we've used,

two or 300 names already.

When a new son in law joined the family,

he was fresh to the game and he was good.

He got several right off the bat,

but it's, naming is difficult.

[Narrator] From designing, to tinkering, to naming

the entire process can take a while.

I have had pieces that started

and took over a year or more

some I put aside 'cause I couldn't get what I liked

and then went back to them after a while

and then some I just have an idea and it comes out

and it comes out right and those are kind of boring

'cause they just worked.

[Narrator] And while it's frustrating

when things don't work,

Roy recognizes that it's all part of the process.

The frustration is kind of nice to have

'cause it makes the joy after better.

But one follows the other,

I don't think I've ever done a piece

where I haven't been disappointed in it initially,

and then had to work through that and try to figure it out.

[Narrator] And Roy's passion

for finding creative solutions

isn't slowing down anytime soon.

I had a brother in law who, when we started this,

he said, This is great, but you're gonna run out of ideas

and then what are you gonna do?

And that was 40 years ago.

It has just been one thing after another.

I thought I would run out but I'm, you know,

pushing 70 years old and there's still lots that I wanna do.

So, it's because of the problems,

I like to solve the problems.