Found this article on the times website, and thought it was an interesting take on the term kinetic, within art. It showed us that kinetic is a big theme in art, and there are more artists and designers than we thought who use it as a recurring theme in their work.
The Kinetica Art Fair: a very moving experience
The Kinetica Art Fair can be enjoyed by art lovers, children and geeks.
A new event opens in London this week that sounds as though it could be fun. Carnivorous lampshades, pole-dancing robots, mechanical writing machines and mesmerising light sculptures are all promised at the world's first Kinetica Art Fair, where 25 galleries and 150 artists will congregate to promote a once fashionable art form that is now reclaiming our attention.
Historians usually trace the origins of kinetic art, which loosely means art that moves, back to the early 20th century and to Duchamp's revolving bicycle wheel. After Alexander Calder began making mobiles in the Fifties, kinetic art became a phenomenon of the Fifties and Sixties, characterised by Jean Tinguely's bizarre, functionless machines, or Takis's electromagnetic signal sculptures.
But the works were difficult to maintain and frequently broke down. "It was a commercial disaster," says Dan Chadwick, one of the new generation of kinetic artists showing at this week's fair. There were also reservations as to whether this was art or just gadgetry, and, after the novelty wore off, kinetic art was relegated to a footnote in the history of art.
