Created by Paolo Salvagione during his residency at Autodesk’s new facility on Pier 9, String Fountain is a kinetic sculpture that uses propulsion to elevate a continuous piece of string into the air. An Arduino connected to the computer controls the vertical and horizontal tilt and rotation using the two bilateral servos. The motor pull speed keeps the string elevated while the two servos tilt left and right to keep the string in the air. The final installation includes 6 strings, kept in the air simultaneously reacting to visitors presence. The project is fully documented on Instructables together with all the STL files for 3d printing and step by step instruction on how to make your own.
Paolo Salvagione is a San Francisco based artist who works at the intersection of engineering, participation, and levity. Grounded in the practice of thinking about thinking about things, he spent a half a decade circling the world setting up bicycle factories from Italy to Indonesia — mastering titanium fabrication after hours at Martin Marietta in Colorado, working on next-generation paint-application systems for Boeing, employing CAD software for hi-tech bike design in Marin, even designing an atmospheric-dust collection tool for NASA. And he has worked, for over a decade, as lead engineer on the 10000 Year Clock of the Long Now Foundation. In his art, Salvagione has sent his studio visitors out one second-story window and in another on a 900-pound steel wheel. He has used a laser cutter to give negative space a razor-sharp edge, creating a frozen bellows of light. He has filled a World War I gymnasium with a mix of pure geometry and pure fun in the form of ten oversized swings, with the implicit suggestion that visitors compete. He has commented on the role of finance in the art market by selling uncut currency presented in a fetishized box, including a pair of paper sheers. And he has pushed kinetic sculpture past what the eye perceives as sufficiently balanced.
For more information and other great projects by Paolo see links below.
Project Page | Paolo Salvagione
