Sculpting waves in wood and time
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0:00 - 0:03Reuben Margolin: Usually I like working in my shop,
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0:03 - 0:07but when it's raining and the driveway outside turns into a river,
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0:07 - 0:09then I just love it.
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0:09 - 0:12And I'll cut some wood and drill some holes and watch the water,
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0:12 - 0:15and maybe I'll have to walk around and look for washers.
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0:15 - 0:18You have no idea how much time I spend.
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0:18 - 0:20This is the "Double Raindrop."
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0:20 - 0:23Of all my sculptures, it's the most talkative.
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0:28 - 0:31It adds together the interference pattern
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0:31 - 0:34from two raindrops that land near each other.
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0:34 - 0:39Instead of expanding circles, they're expanding hexagons.
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0:45 - 0:47All the sculptures move by mechanical means.
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0:55 - 0:59Do you see how there's three peaks to the yellow sign wave?
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0:59 - 1:05Right here I'm adding a sign wave with four peaks and turning it on.
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1:20 - 1:26800 two-liter soda bottles -- oh yeah.
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1:26 - 1:28(Laughter)
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1:38 - 1:42400 aluminum cans.
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1:45 - 1:47Tule is a reed that's native to California,
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1:47 - 1:52and the best thing about working with it is that it smells just delicious.
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2:05 - 2:08A single drop of rain
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2:08 - 2:10increasing amplitude.
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2:32 - 2:37The spiral eddy that trails a paddle on a rafting trip.
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2:48 - 2:50This adds together four different waves.
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2:50 - 2:54And here I'm going to pull out the double wavelengths
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2:54 - 2:57and increase the single.
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2:57 - 3:00The mechanism that drives it has nine motors
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3:00 - 3:02and about 3,000 pulleys.
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3:13 - 3:16445 strings in a three-dimensional weave.
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3:16 - 3:19Transferred to a larger scale --
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3:19 - 3:22actually a lot larger, with a lot of help --
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3:22 - 3:2614,064 bicycle reflectors --
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3:26 - 3:30a 20-day install.
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3:50 - 3:51"Connected" is a collaboration
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3:51 - 3:54with choreographer Gideon Obarzanek.
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3:54 - 3:57Strings attached to dancers.
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3:57 - 4:00This is very early rehearsal footage,
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4:00 - 4:03but the finished work's on tour
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4:03 - 4:06and is actually coming through L.A. in a couple weeks.
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4:12 - 4:16A pair of helices and 40 wooden slats.
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4:38 - 4:41Take your finger and draw this line.
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4:41 - 4:45Summer, fall, winter, spring,
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4:45 - 4:49noon, dusk, dark, dawn.
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4:49 - 4:54Have you ever seen those stratus clouds
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4:54 - 4:56that go in parallel stripes across the sky?
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4:56 - 5:00Did you know that's a continuous sheet of cloud
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5:00 - 5:02that's dipping in and out of the condensation layer?
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5:02 - 5:06What if every seemingly isolated object
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5:06 - 5:10was actually just where the continuous wave of that object
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5:10 - 5:13poked through into our world?
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5:13 - 5:17The Earth is neither flat nor round.
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5:17 - 5:20It's wavy.
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5:20 - 5:28It sounds good, but I'll bet you know in your gut that's not the whole truth,
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5:28 - 5:30and I'll tell you why.
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5:30 - 5:31I have a two-year-old daughter who's the best thing ever.
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5:31 - 5:33And I'm just going to come out and say it:
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5:33 - 5:35My daughter is not a wave.
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5:35 - 5:41And you might say, "Surely, Rueben, if you took even the slightest step back,
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5:41 - 5:44the cycles of hunger and eating,
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5:44 - 5:47waking and sleeping, laughing and crying
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5:47 - 5:49would emerge as pattern."
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5:49 - 5:51But I would say, "If I did that,
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5:51 - 5:54too much would be lost."
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5:54 - 6:00This tension between the need to look deeper
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6:00 - 6:04and the beauty and immediacy of the world,
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6:04 - 6:06where if you even try to look deeper you've already missed what you're looking for,
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6:06 - 6:09this tension is what makes the sculptures move.
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6:09 - 6:12And for me, the path between these two extremes
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6:12 - 6:14takes the shape of a wave.
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6:14 - 6:17Let me show you one more.
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7:00 - 7:03Thank you very much. Thanks.
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7:03 - 7:06(Applause)
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7:06 - 7:07Thanks.
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7:07 - 7:11(Applause)
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7:11 - 7:13June Cohen: Looking at each of your sculptures,
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7:13 - 7:14they evoke so many different images.
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7:14 - 7:17Some of them are like the wind and some are like waves,
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7:17 - 7:20and sometimes they look alive and sometimes they seem like math.
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7:20 - 7:22Is there an actual inspiration behind each one?
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7:22 - 7:26Are you thinking of something physical or somthing tangible as you design it?
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7:26 - 7:29RM: Well some of them definitely have a direct observation --
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7:29 - 7:33like literally two raindrops falling,
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7:33 - 7:36and just watching that pattern is so stunning.
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7:36 - 7:39And then just trying to figure out how to make that using stuff.
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7:39 - 7:44I like working with my hands.
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7:44 - 7:46There's nothing better than cutting a piece of wood
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7:46 - 7:48and trying to make it move.
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7:48 - 7:50JC: And does it ever change?
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7:50 - 7:51You think you're designing one thing,
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7:51 - 7:53and then when it's produced it looks like something else?
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7:53 - 7:54RM: The "Double Raindrop" I worked on for nine months,
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7:54 - 7:58and when I finally turned it on,
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7:58 - 8:02I actually hated it.
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8:02 - 8:06The very moment I turned it on, I hated it.
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8:06 - 8:09It was like a really deep-down gut reaction, and I wanted to throw it out.
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8:09 - 8:12And I happened to have a friend who was over,
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8:12 - 8:13and he said, "Why don't you just wait."
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8:13 - 8:18And I waited, and the next day I liked it a bit better,
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8:18 - 8:21the next day I liked it a bit better, and now I really love it.
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8:21 - 8:26And so I guess, one, that gut reactions a little bit wrong sometimes,
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8:26 - 8:28and two, it does not look like as expected.
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8:28 - 8:31JC: The relationship evolves over time.
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8:31 - 8:32Well thank you so much. That was a gorgeous treat for us.
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8:32 - 8:35RM: Thanks. (JC: Thank you, Reuben.)
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8:35 - 8:37(Applause)
- Title:
- Sculpting waves in wood and time
- Speaker:
- Reuben Margolin
- Description:
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Reuben Margolin is a kinetic sculptor, crafting beautiful pieces that move in the pattern of raindrops falling and waves combining. Take nine minutes and be mesmerized by his meditative art -- inspired in equal parts by math and nature.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:58
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Jenny Zurawell approved English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Sculpting waves in wood and time | ||
Timothy Covell added a translation |