Gearspeak
By Anthony Asiaghi

A viewer walking into the I-20 Gallery in New York’s Chelsea art district is confronted by a series of highly unusual-looking engines. The entire contoured surfaces of these brightly colored, cartoon-like machines flicker with an animated motion matching their ambient techno-sounds.

Each engine is unique and oddly personable. Each generates its own inner light. And each produces a personal statement in the form of a ticker tape scrolling through its gears.

Their inventor, Peter Sarkisian, never intended to become an expert in 3-D solid modeling. “I consider myself almost an anti-technologist,” he said. “And yet, I’m using the technology.”

Sarkisian, who was born in Glendale, Calif., started making videos when he was 13. He became a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute and today is one of the most celebrated video sculptors in the United States.

His latest piece is the culmination of a hobbyist’s dream—an acclaimed project resulting from nearly five years of loving tinkering in his studio in Santa Fe, N.M. He calls this work his “Extruded Video Engine Series.”

Technological innovation: A video sculpture by Peter Sarkisian employs 3-D solid modeling to break out of the conventional boxlike television monitor.

He began by using 3-D modeling software to design a roughly rectangular block with an undulating, contoured surface. Using computer-guided technology, he machine-sculpted a finished, real-world positive of his computer model from slabs of mahogany. His overall design took the shape of an engine.

“Having come from a film background, my experience with computer modeling was limited, and so I needed a system that could be easily self-taught,” he said. He built his models primarily with Rhinoceros (Rhino3D) on a PC platform and Maya on a Mac.

The programs employ NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline), a mathematical representation of 3-D geometry common in computer graphics for generating models of complex objects. NURBS models are found in processes from illustration and animation to manufacturing.

The final NURBS geometry was exported as a Solidworks IGES file and given to a facility in Albuquerque that specializes in 3-D mold making and CNC routing. Once there, a mold was cut from a layered slab of mahogany.

The wooden mold became the template for forming a series of transparent viewing screens, each trimmed to 39 inches by 40 inches and 8 inches deep, out of vacuum-formed thermal plastic, a material used in packaging consumer goods.

The rear surface of each screen was sandblasted with a fine powder abrasive. The resulting finish allowed projected images striking the back of the screens to show through the front.

For the next step, Sarkisian was granted special access to the Los Alamos National Laboratory surplus facility in New Mexico. There, he combed through antiquated Cold War-era remnants: gears, pistons, flywheels, and ball bearings. He filmed these remnants in color and in black-and-white.

He combined more than a hundred layers of film clips, forming a composite of cohesive mechanical images that matched the contours of his imaginary engines. The resulting moving images remain in focus when projected through his undulating 3-D screens.

As a last step, Sarkisian gathered personal narratives in which friends described their most important moments. These story lines appear to scroll in random bursts through the contours of the machinery, as if from inside the engine itself.

He installed his plastic screens in a false wall. His film is rear-projected via two high-resolution video projectors. The projectors display two different video loops of unequal length. The difference means that a combination of images never repeats exactly for the duration of the gallery show.

Art critics cite Sarkisian for freeing video from the conventions of the boxlike television monitor.

“I am not impressed with technology.” Sarkisian said. “The television monitor, the projected image, or the DVD machine is no more important, exciting, or fresh than a pair of glasses. That’s how integrated technology is into my generation and culture.”

Technology is transforming human experience and the means we use to tell our stories. Visionaries like Peter Sarkisian are addressing its challenges by using technology in new and innovative ways, as ally and tool, providing fresh experience and renewed meaning.