Kinetic Sculpture - NYU ITP
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Duban Morales
Week
Date 05/02/2025

Anamorphic Clock

The entirety of this clock was built using laser-cut gears from 1/4” thick Baltic birch wood and a single motor to drive the mechanism, including the clock hands. It uses three 5/16” rods or shafts—two wooden and one steel. Both wooden shafts rotate in place, connecting the vertical “half” gears together. The steel rod provides structural support. In earlier versions of the clock, the wooden shafts would lose their initial position and rotate with the center of the clock, rather than staying fixed. This misalignment prevented the gears from maintaining the spatial relationship needed to connect and allow movement. The project explores perception, spatial transformation, and the idea that time can be both chaotic and precise, depending on your point of view.

When calculating tolerance, it's important to note that wood and steel from hardware stores differ in sizing. Wood is typically slightly smaller than the labeled size, while steel tends to be true to its specified dimensions. This distinction matters for the structural support of my project. I need the wooden components to fit snugly onto the steel rod to hold them in place with enough friction, while also ensuring a functional fit with the wooden rods that allows the pieces to rotate as intended.

Duban Morales
Week
Date 04/02/2025

I took a few steps back to build a standard clock mechanism so I could better understand how the shafts and gears actually connect to one another, as well as the gear ratios needed to accurately tell time with a 24-hour clock. Although I’m using one continuous shaft for both the hour and minute hands, the gears cause the hands to rotate at different rates depending on whether they are tracking seconds or hours. Once I understood how the gears moved, I decided to split them in half so I could pull them apart, while still trying to preserve elements of the initial design that inspired me to start this project.

Duban Morales
Week 05
Date 02/19/2025

Inspiration

RAY KAPPE RESIDENCE

BEA MARTIN

BEA MARTIN
https://www.instagram.com/bgommartin/?hl=en

Carla Accardi “Assedio rosso n3”

Wassily Kandinsky, “Transverse Line“ 1923.

Umberto Boccioni “state of mind ii: those who go” (1911)

André Masson, "Ofelia", 1937

Salvador Dalí, “Idillio melanconico atomico e uranico”, 1945

Daniel Tamayo “Durangaldea”

Hector Guimard Art Nouveau

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

After seeing how László Moholy-Nagy transformed a light prop into a kinetic sculpture giving a single project multiple lives—I was inspired to design something that could live beyond this class. His work also encouraged me to approach the process with more freedom, reducing the pressure I put on myself and allowing me to explore with intent. The museum that houses his piece notes that most visitors don’t immediately understand what they’re looking at until it’s explained. I’m drawn to that experience standing in front of a physical object, puzzled, trying to piece it together in your mind. I wanted to create something that evokes a similar response.

Duban Morales
Week 03
Date 02/05/2025