Graz: Gravity, Pendulums, & Collisions Exhibition

“I wanted to know how it is possible, without having a maze of strings attached to one’s fingers, to move the separate limbs and extremities in the rhythm of the dance. His answer was that I must not imagine each limb as being individually positioned and moved by the operator in the various phases of the dance. Each movement, he told me, has its centre of gravity; it is enough to control this within the puppet. The limbs, which are only pendulums, then follow mechanically of their own accord, without further help. He added that this movement is very simple. When the centre of gravity is moved in a straight line, the limbs describe curves. Often shaken in a purely haphazard way, the puppet falls into a kind of rhythmic movement which resembles dance.”

On the Marionette Theatre, 1810, Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist’s essay in 1810 describes the Marionette in surprisingly similar ways to how we might start describe (or build) a Marionette in code. “Gravity, Pendulums, & Collisions” was a collection of works exploring Kleists test on the ‘BIX’ Media Facade of Peter Cook & Colin Fournier’s Kunsthaus, Graz, in Austria. A series of acts were broadcast out over the city of Graz and internet in November 2008.