Bringing art to life
As a manufacturer and supplier of rotary indexing technology, WEISS are presented with new and challenging applications almost every day.
However, even WEISS engineers were surprised when they found themselves involved in the world of art as the suppliers of twelve freely programmable, servo rotary indexing units ,which were to be incorporated into the engineering sculpture Metalmorphosis.
Czech artist David Cerný was commissioned to design the revolving super-sculpture by the American Asset Corporation, a US estate agent in North Carolina. The Metalmorphosis sculpture has the form of a human head and comprises of a number of revolving stainless steel elements, each of which are controlled separately and provide the effect of dissecting the sculptures features.
The individual rotating elements are driven by twelve WEISS NR15000Z rotary indexing rings, which were specifically selected for the project. This highly individual piece of art stands 10m tall, weighs 14 tonnes and has seven revolving stainless steel parts. Water flows from the mouth of the sculpture into a fountain at its base.
Special software is used to control an array of motors within the sculpture, enabling the movement of the separate rotating sections to be choreographed by the artist himself, via the internet. A live stream video of the moving sculpture can be viewed online at www.metalmorphosis.tv.
The complex construction process, undertaken by Czech company Deimos Construction, began in late 2006 and the sculpture was officially unveiled by dignitaries from the Czech Republic in September 2007. For David Cerný this is the continuation of his artistic work, in which he combines mechanical engineering and data technology as an integral part of his design.
WEISS manufacture a complete range of rotary and linear indexing systems which can be applied to a wide range of automation applications, and they are delighted to have been a part of this innovative, and interesting project.
