Come one, come all, to the greatest race of the year! See
sculptures scamper through the heart of Baltimore, over road, mud, ice, sand, and out into the
harbor! Here are pictures in case you missed the event.
This was the fourth East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race, and it was
even more grand than the previous year (see those
photos). The race was again hosted by the American
Visionary Art Museum on the Inner Harbor--a great place to visit even when it's not hosting
sculpture races. This year's exhibit, War and Peace, has some amazing and
thought-provoking pieces.
I went with Karen, Gretchen, Dave and Lisa, and we got good and
tired merely following the sculptures along their 15-mile journey. One improvement this
year was replacing the inflatable woman and man lasso competition with an ice slalom—see the
photos at the bottom of the page.
The
Visionary Art Museum’s amphibious poodle Fifi was in the race again, although her pink wasn’t quite
as bright as last year. She sported a stylish raincoat for the water segments.
This
frog was an amazing 2-pilot pontooned creation that performed admirably on land and sea. The
body of the frog was made of expanding foam insulation extruded over a frame of chicken
wire. Colored styrofoam balls were inserted and the whole thing was painted green. A
very lightweight, bold construction (albeit slightly disturbing). It came complete with a
large fly bobbing on a wire in front.
This
Galloping Cow was impressive, but apparently difficult to drive. Less than halfway through the
race, its two pilots offered it to anyone who wanted to finish the race in it—and under questioning
revealed that they themselves had been mere race spectators until recruited by the original pilots
some miles earlier!
The
Rocketmen entry on the streets of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the special hovercraft lane. The
funnel hats were a great touch. The huge propeller and squirrel cages on the back rotated, but
unfortunately did not provide propulsion.
They
were also at home on the water.
The
Towson Dragonfly Divas had a well-tested design that worked well on pavement and in the
harbor. The creature’s wings flapped with abundant festivity as it went along.
The
Divas had a bit of trouble in the sand, but their lightweight design kept them from bogging down
nearly as much as most sculptures.
This
patriotic entrant was a clean engineering design festooned with flags big enough to be sails.
They didn't have an easy time steering in the water, but were effective.
This
pontoon design was generally effective, although it required a lot of fiddling at transition
points. If the front wheels aren't drive wheels, and the floats aren’t carefully
positioned, buoyancy will make it impossible to drive out of the water. Most sculptures needed
towing or pushing on their aquatic egress.
Designing
something to drive through mud is hard! Even this fat-tired creation needed a lot of
pushing to get through.
RE-Me2 the Radio Controlled Swimmer was Pilot Frank Lee wearing
a giant transparent helmet while leading a rickshaw-style boat launcher with bamboo poles.
The
cart turned into a remote-controlled spoon-driven boat for the water race. Frank had plenty of bribes on hand to keep his body out of the harbor.
More about this entry.
This
was an incredible mobile beaver lodge to match last year's beavercycle. The pilot of
this amazing sculpture rode a bicycle inside, and had a hole through which he poked a beaver
puppet that waved to the crowds. As the lodge scurried around, it was impossible not to
laugh. It’s a comic work of art.
This
pilot had an extraordinarily effective design. He had sturdy mountain-bike tires, very little mass,
and just drove into the water and activated his rear propeller. He had the incredible ability to
drive right out of the water, which is utterly impossible for almost any other design. This
engineering feat makes up for its naked artless functionality.
Just
as impressive, he also drove straight down the steep ramp at the Museum of Industry, and was one of
only two sculptures that didn’t require careful lowering on ropes by a large team.
Incredible! After the racecraft arrived at the site, there was a lengthy delay while they
figured out how to let the craft enter. Eyeing the steepness of the ramp and the sudden
dropoff in the water, many in the crowd anticipated sculptural carnage until they started using
ropes to gingerly lower vehicles into the water. That made the few craft that drove straight
down all the more impressive.
This
scorpion was another clever design, quite close to its roots as a collection of mountain bikes
fastened together.
The
spirit of the race was clearly very strong in the Make Believers team with their Grape Stompers entry.
The Stompers had the most
novel drive mechanism I've seen. They were the only craft without revolving bicycle-style pedals; instead theirs resembled a stairmaster
as the four pilots stomped. Their motif was
found in the toga-wearing stompers and the vineyard scaffold. (Note the stick-equipped
toga-wearing pit crew member.) In the water, they put fins on their four wheels, and went sideways!
(That 90° turn made entering and exiting the water difficult, but they get huge bonus points for
coming up with a new propulsion strategy and a full theme to go with it!)
They
were the only entry that had not mere pit crew, but also a cheering squad! Rollerblade-clad
enthusiastic supporters held bunches of grape-like balloons to show their vinicultural spirit.
(Holly’s indomitable nature is also reflected in the bandage on her left knee, and the
matching blood stains on her toga.) To top it off, they were approaching spectators and
converting them to their cause by applying togas, wreaths, and signs!
This
is what Dave and I looked like after they converted us. Note my inadvertent choice of matching
shirt and sandals. Dave doesn't always look like that.
This
craft may look something that fell off a barge, but it worked quite well. Their one big
problem was on Canton Waterfront loop around the pier, where a piece of floating trash jammed their
unicycle-style propeller.
Cleverly
disguised as a superfund site, this sculpture was the most archetypically Visionary entrant in the
race. With hand-painted lettering and primary-color palette, it looked like it had rolled
right out of the Visionary Art Museum. It's chassis consisted of three wheelchairs fastened
together, floated by nine beer kegs (presumably empty).
It required nine people to get through the mud!
This
represents the most elegant and fantastic example of mobile woodworking I've ever seen.
Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to steer. The unsupported front required a huge
balancing effort along the pitch axis, and the narrow footprint of the ring required a huge
balancing effort along the roll axis. We didn't see this spectacular creation get far past the
starting line.
The
view from a taxi as we caught up with the racers.
We conclude with the ice crossing at the Patterson Park Ice Rink, courtesy of Joo Chung. This is the only ice crossing in the world-wide history of Kinetic Sculpture Racing. First we see the Hillbilly Ark from the Dumpster Divers.
Second,
we have the Dragonfly Divas from Towson University as they glide through the
rink. This image is also courtesy of Joo Chung; see more of his photography at SingularLight.com.