Laszlo Moholy-Nagy ///// [07] Beyond Modern Sculpture [07, p290] Light-Space Modulator - made between 1922-1930 with aid of an expert mechanic - five feet high, aluminum and chrome-plated surfaces driven an electric motor and chain belts - made a film from it "Light Display: Black and White and Grey" - important as a prototype for later light sculpture, meant not just for projection, but also to be seen as an object in itself - cityscape at night is a kinetic light sculpture - emphasis on form through light - designed and built with the aid of an expert mechanic [07, p236] many of his concepts in kinetics relate to the concept of virtual volumes-- "the outline or trajectory presented by an object in motion" he saw sculpture as volume relationships, mass transformed into volume (like Gabo) he saw the artistic deficiencies of mechanical motion, but still thought it necessary to pursue ///// [15] Rosalind Krauss Moholy Nagy's Light Prop (or) Light-Space Modulator - originally intended as an on-stage projector [15, p208] "Like a human figure, the Light Prop has an internal structure that affects its outward appearance, and, more crucially, an internal source of energy that allows it to move. And, like a human agent, the work is meant to affect its space through the gestures which it makes over a period of time. The fact that these gestures -- the patterns of projected light and the shifting patterns that relate throughout its internal structure -- change in time, and have a complex program, gives the object an even more human, because seemingly volitional, quality. Thus, no matter how abstract its forms and its function, the Light Prop is a kind of robot; the place it was meant to take on stage is that of a mechanical actor." the light prop is therefore, the descendent of automatons. [15, p209] Behind it stands a far-reaching mimetic impulse, a passion to imitate not simly the look of the living creature but to reproduce as well its animations, its discourse with the passage of time." ///// [09] Force Fields [09, p229] Laszlo Moholy Nagy and Alfred Kemeny, Dynamic-Constructive Energy-System "We must replace the static principle of classical art with the dynamic principle of universal life. In practice: instead of static material-construction (relationships of material and form), we have to organize dynamic construction (vital constructivity, energy relationships), in which the material functions solely as a conveyor of energy. Carried further, the dynamic single-construction leads to the DYNAMIC-CONSTRUCTIVE ENERGY-SYSTEM, with the beholder, hitherto receptive in his contemplation of art-works, undergoing a greater heightening of his powers than ever before and actually becoming an active factor in the play of forces." ///// [05] Guy Brett, Kinetic Art in New Vision MN talks about "extraordinary adaptability", like a living body where adjusts to continually changing situations - more complex and dynamic than in static art - talks about water "in rest, in motion, in gaseous form, in liquid and solid form ... placid or rushing brook, as a raging sea, as pattering rainfall, as a spraying fountain, as a drifting cloud of steam... Its changes arise from an extraordinary adaptability to the forces acting upon it." saw that once art dropped its representational role, and space became real, the separateness between the work and the spectator would disolve. the dimension of time makes the work relative, it no longer has an isolated permanent existence ///// [14] Hulten, The Machine, As Seen . . . staff of Bauhaus 1923-1928 p138 Light-Space Modulator - a complicated machine meant to function perfectly - had a chrome finish, - not an end in itself, but like a true machine, it was productive through it's projection of light - light reflected through the modulator and onto the walls