''Archimedean Excogitation'' is a 1987 audiokinetic
rolling ball sculpture
A rolling ball sculpture (sometimes referred to as a marble run, ball run, gravitram, ''kugelbahn'' (German: 'ball track'), or rolling ball machine) is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specific ...
by
George Rhoads
George Rhoads (January 27, 1926 – July 9, 2021) was a contemporary American painter, sculptor, and origami master. He was best known for his whimsical audiokinetic sculptures in airports, science museums, shopping malls, children's hospitals, ...
. It is located in the atrium of the
Museum of Science
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a science museum and indoor zoo in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentat ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
Description
''Archimedean
Excogitation'' consists of a metal and glass display case framing a system of nine tracks on two main levels.
The lower level tracks contain
billiard ball
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball p ...
s, which encounter a series of mechanical obstacles as they roll, some of which (such as a
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
and
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...
) produce noise.
The upper level tracks contain larger
duckpin bowling balls,
which push
windmill blades and encounter similar obstacles.
In total, the sculpture has slightly fewer than 30 moving or sound-producing components,
and is tall.
Construction
''Archimedean Excogitation'' was
commissioned for the
Museum of Science
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a science museum and indoor zoo in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentat ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, with a budget of $536,100.
It was designed by
George Rhoads
George Rhoads (January 27, 1926 – July 9, 2021) was a contemporary American painter, sculptor, and origami master. He was best known for his whimsical audiokinetic sculptures in airports, science museums, shopping malls, children's hospitals, ...
, with assistance from Rock Stream Studios, and was installed in 1987.
In 2015, the sculpture was refurbished and moved from the museum's lower lobby to its atrium.
Reception
''Archimedean Excogitation'' has been a popular attraction for museumgoers.
Metta Winter, writing for ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'', described it as "a noisy, unpredictable affair observers find hard to walk away from".
Hayley Kaufman, writing for ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', called it "seemingly unstoppable
nddelightfully complex".
It is associated with the
kinetic art movement.
The sculpture is used by the museum as an educational tool to help illustrate the principles of physics and
mechanical device
A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
s.
It was featured on a 1999 episode of ''
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debut ...
''.
See also
*
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these mach ...
References
{{authority control
1987 sculptures
Kinetic sculptures in the United States
Sculptures in Massachusetts
Works by George Rhoads