Reuben Margolin: Sculpting waves in wood and time

47,856 views ・ 2012-05-02

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast
0
0
7000
00:15
Usually I like working in my shop,
1
15260
2625
00:17
but when it's raining and the driveway outside turns into a river,
2
17885
4333
00:22
then I just love it.
3
22218
2040
00:24
And I'll cut some wood and drill some holes and watch the water,
4
24258
3331
00:27
and maybe I'll have to walk around and look for washers.
5
27589
2879
00:30
You have no idea how much time I spend.
6
30468
2932
00:33
This is the "Double Raindrop."
7
33400
2027
00:35
Of all my sculptures, it's the most talkative.
8
35427
3125
00:43
It adds together the interference pattern
9
43690
3012
00:46
from two raindrops that land near each other.
10
46702
3279
00:49
Instead of expanding circles, they're expanding hexagons.
11
49981
5147
01:00
All the sculptures move by mechanical means.
12
60205
4284
01:10
Do you see how there's three peaks to the yellow sine wave?
13
70150
4235
01:14
Right here I'm adding a sine wave with four peaks and turning it on.
14
74385
6100
01:35
Eight hundred two-liter soda bottles --
15
95904
3466
01:39
oh yea.
16
99370
1744
01:41
(Laughter)
17
101114
2236
01:53
Four hundred aluminum cans.
18
113519
3658
01:59
Tule is a reed that's native to California,
19
119777
2760
02:02
and the best thing about working with it is that it smells just delicious.
20
122537
5266
02:21
A single drop of rain
21
141095
2948
02:24
increasing amplitude.
22
144043
2515
02:48
The spiral eddy that trails a paddle on a rafting trip.
23
168143
5226
03:03
This adds together four different waves.
24
183523
2875
03:06
And here I'm going to pull out the double wavelengths
25
186398
2921
03:09
and increase the single.
26
189319
3348
03:12
The mechanism that drives it has nine motors
27
192667
2941
03:15
and about 3,000 pulleys.
28
195608
2522
03:27
Four hundred and forty-five strings in a three-dimensional weave.
29
207776
4657
03:32
Transferred to a larger scale --
30
212433
2839
03:35
actually a lot larger, with a lot of help --
31
215272
3078
03:38
14,064 bicycle reflectors --
32
218350
3767
03:42
a 20-day install.
33
222117
3749
04:04
"Connected" is a collaboration
34
244943
1692
04:06
with choreographer Gideon Obarzanek.
35
246635
3804
04:10
Strings attached to dancers.
36
250439
3341
04:13
This is very early rehearsal footage,
37
253780
2422
04:16
but the finished work's on tour
38
256202
2362
04:18
and is actually coming through L.A. in a couple weeks.
39
258564
4373
04:27
A pair of helices and 40 wooden slats.
40
267399
5032
04:53
Take your finger and draw this line.
41
293031
3229
04:56
Summer, fall, winter, spring,
42
296260
4000
05:00
noon, dusk, dark, dawn.
43
300260
6237
05:06
Have you ever seen those stratus clouds
44
306497
3263
05:09
that go in parallel stripes across the sky?
45
309760
2673
05:12
Did you know that's a continuous sheet of cloud
46
312433
2595
05:15
that's dipping in and out of the condensation layer?
47
315028
3597
05:18
What if every seemingly isolated object
48
318625
2833
05:21
was actually just where the continuous wave of that object
49
321458
3844
05:25
poked through into our world?
50
325302
3481
05:28
The Earth is neither flat nor round.
51
328783
4377
05:33
It's wavy.
52
333160
4423
05:37
It sounds good, but I'll bet you know in your gut that it's not the whole truth,
53
337583
5498
05:43
and I'll tell you why.
54
343081
1558
05:44
I have a two-year-old daughter who's the best thing ever.
55
344639
1996
05:46
And I'm just going to come out and say it:
56
346635
2083
05:48
My daughter is not a wave.
57
348718
3535
05:52
And you might say, "Surely, Rueben, if you took even just the slightest step back,
58
352253
4580
05:56
the cycles of hunger and eating,
59
356833
2760
05:59
waking and sleeping, laughing and crying
60
359593
2840
06:02
would emerge as pattern."
61
362433
2611
06:05
But I would say, "If I did that,
62
365044
2627
06:07
too much would be lost."
63
367671
3489
06:11
This tension between the need to look deeper
64
371160
4729
06:15
and the beauty and immediacy of the world,
65
375889
2954
06:18
where if you even try to look deeper you've already missed what you're looking for,
66
378843
3702
06:22
this tension is what makes the sculptures move.
67
382545
3071
06:25
And for me, the path between these two extremes
68
385616
2511
06:28
takes the shape of a wave.
69
388127
2735
06:30
Let me show you one more.
70
390862
3067
07:15
Thank you very much. Thanks.
71
435360
3429
07:18
(Applause)
72
438789
2181
07:20
Thanks.
73
440970
1232
07:22
(Applause)
74
442202
4464
07:26
June Cohen: Looking at each of your sculptures,
75
446666
1773
07:28
they evoke so many different images.
76
448439
2428
07:30
Some of them are like the wind and some are like waves,
77
450867
2535
07:33
and sometimes they look alive and sometimes they seem like math.
78
453402
2885
07:36
Is there an actual inspiration behind each one?
79
456287
2504
07:38
Are you thinking of something physical or somthing tangible as you design it?
80
458791
3556
07:42
RM: Well some of them definitely have a direct observation --
81
462347
3140
07:45
like literally two raindrops falling,
82
465487
2815
07:48
and just watching that pattern is so stunning.
83
468302
2875
07:51
And then just trying to figure out how to make that using stuff.
84
471177
5689
07:56
I like working with my hands.
85
476881
2529
07:59
There's nothing better than cutting a piece of wood
86
479425
2210
08:01
and trying to make it move.
87
481635
1750
08:03
JC: And does it ever change?
88
483385
1750
08:05
Do you think you're designing one thing,
89
485135
1125
08:06
and then when it's produced it looks like something else?
90
486260
1750
08:08
RM: The "Double Raindrop" I worked on for nine months,
91
488010
3458
08:11
and when I finally turned it on,
92
491468
2326
08:13
I actually hated it.
93
493825
3643
08:17
The very moment I turned it on, I hated it.
94
497468
4125
08:21
It was like a really deep-down gut reaction, and I wanted to throw it out.
95
501593
3348
08:24
And I happened to have a friend who was over,
96
504941
2144
08:27
and he said, "Why don't you just wait."
97
507085
2012
08:29
And I waited, and the next day I liked it a bit better,
98
509097
4369
08:33
the next day I liked it a bit better, and now I really love it.
99
513466
2961
08:36
And so I guess, one, the gut reactions a little bit wrong sometimes,
100
516427
4666
08:41
and two, it does not look like as expected.
101
521093
2542
08:43
JC: The relationship evolves over time.
102
523635
2417
08:46
Well thank you so much. That was a gorgeous treat for us.
103
526052
875
08:46
RM: Thanks. (JC: Thank you, Reuben.)
104
526927
2887
08:49
(Applause)
105
529814
2363
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7