Marcel Duchamp. Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics)

In 1920, Duchamp built Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics)  a motorized axis holds five painted glass plates, which when spun looks like a single circle.

Duchamp built this sculpture with the help of Man Ray (a popular dada and surrealist artist). The piece wasn't even considered to be art by Duchamp when they made it. The piece has an interesting story behind it:

"Man Ray set up equipment to photograph the initial experiment, but when they turned the machine on for the second time, a belt broke, and caught a piece of the glass, which after glancing off Man Ray's head, shattered into bits."

-Wikipedia: Marcel Duchamp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp)

We spoke of Duchamp in an earlier blog post in regards to his work in dadaism and being a precursor to many Cybernetics themes like interactivity and in this case automation. These first steps that he makes are crucial breakthroughs in the history of computational art.

This piece is a good example of how motors and mechanical devices can be so easily transformed into pieces of art. I particularly like the idea of changing these devices meant for specific jobs and using them for things they were never intended for.