Motion and Stillness

The Exhibition

“Motion and Stillness” exhibits physical movements and their relation to time, velocity, displacement and force, whether we experience such movements with our bodies or perceive them with our minds. Visitors will move into the space and the space will move around them.

Harmonograph

The harmonograph is a mechanical apparatus that follows the resultant of two or more simple harmonic motions to produce designs with different curves. We may predict what the drawing will look like based on previous experiments or mathematical calculations, but we do not fully know what will happen once the harmonograph starts its task. Watching the drawings in formation is an appealing experience that incites us to stop and communicate with motion.

Pedal Power

When you spin the pedals, the wheel rotates at double speed as a result of the rotation of the gears and pulleys. The wheel turns the fan on, and thus, air pushes the ball up. Since the ball is a sphere in shape, the air will surround it in all directions and not allow it to escape, based on the Bernoulli Principle.

Rotating Disk

When you move in a circular motion, it gains velocity proportional to its mass and location from the spinning axis; the farther your body moves from the spinning axis, the slower it turns and vice versa. The closer to the spinning axis, the faster it will be.

Balance Disk

The disk requires opposing bodies to be harmoniously distributed around the ball to achieve balance. Thus, the persons standing on the disk must move closer or farther from the center to achieve this balance.

Pascal's Press

The tube is full of a totally contained fluid. When you climb up the small platform, you produce pressure that is equally distributed to different parts of the fluid, and thus lift the big platform. The reason behind this is that the area you are standing on is smaller than the area of the opposing platform. Thus, the effect of weight on the smaller area is larger than its effect on the larger area.

Mystery Room

You can see the motion, but cannot feel it. When you enter the room, the eye sends information to the brain that the place is moving while the mechanical-motional information that reaches the brain says that the place is static. Thus, the brain enters into a state of contradiction that may make the person inside the room fall down.

Gallery

Exhibition Booklet

Motion Exhibits (Video)

The Harmonograph Room

This mechanical system, which draws its motion track, compels us to look beyond visible motion. It is an artistic expression that embodies the effect of interacting forces, and thus, functions as the harmonograph. It is a mechanical apparatus that follows the resultant of two or more simple harmonic motions to produce designs with different curves.

We may predict what the drawing will look like based on previous experiments or mathematical calculations, but we do not fully know what will happen once the harmonograph starts its task. Watching the drawings in formation is an appealing experience that incites us to stop and communicate with motion.