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"With Norman Tuck's sculpture 'Disco,' children can see what it's like to walk
forward and move backward simultaneously. (It doesn't feel like dancing.)"
Delcie Leimbach, The New York Times.
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Disco at Technorama
48" x 120" x 120"
automobile transmission, wood, steel, kitechen tiles, castors
1981
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This self-propelled merry-go-round uses an automobile transmission with
an input shaft connected to the gallery floor, a housing mounted onto a
large wheeled disk, and an output shaft supporting a wooden crosspiece.
The gears within the transmission transfer forward energy into a force
which moves against you, to reverse your forward progress.
"The result is almost instant confusion and, occasionally, a slight case of
motion sickness."
Pat Craig, The Contra Costa Times.
"Disco is an interactive piece whose mechanics will probably baffle many
viewers, as they did me.
...Somehow, when you stand on the disc, push forward
against the roughly waist-high bamboo pole and walk forward, the disc spins
in the opposite direction so that you end up making no forward progress,
regardless of how fast you walk.
" Tom Patterson, The Winston-Salem Journal.
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Disco at the Exploratorium
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Step onto the platform and push forward on the wooden crossbar.
As you walk forward you go backward in relation
to the room.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO WALK OVER OTHERS WHO MIGHT FALL, ESPECIALLY YOUNG CHILDREN.
An automobile transmission bolted to the turntable causes the turntable to
rotate
backwards as you walk forwards. In pushing on the bar, you are turning the
output shaft of the transmission, the transmission casing is attached to the
turntable and the input shaft is attached to the floor. Wheels support the
turntable.
Disco has been exhibited at:
1999 Art Machines, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul.
1998 Art Machines, The Discovery Center of Idaho, Boise, ID.
1996 Art Machines, Inventure Place, Akron, OH.
1994 Art Machines, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA.
1994 Art Machines, Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, N.J.
1993 Art Machines, Technorama Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland
1993 Experimenta '93, Villa Gualino, Turin, Italy
1991 Mindless Mechanisms, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, N.C.
1982 Fashion Moda, Bronx, N.Y.
1981 The Coney Island Show, TheConey Island Amusement Park, Brooklyn, NY.
A version of Disco is in the permanent collection of
Technorama Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland.
