Montage -- What Else is There?

Synchronized Studies is an attempt to draw art and science slightly closer together with a series of small kinetic sculptures. Each piece is composed of a number of independent elements which are coupled together in simple ways. Though the individual actions are not complicated their interaction creates more complex behaviors in the whole.

One of the earliest examples of this is a coupled pendulum. When two objects that have a simple periodic motion transfer a bit of their energy to each other the behavior of the resulting system can vary wildly. In some cases, as with grandfather clocks mounted on the same slightly flexible surface, they will synchronize -- Christiaan Huygens noticed this in 1665. In other cases, where their frequencies are less similar, they may become chaotic -- Henri Poincaré noticed this in the orbits of the planets in 1887.

The Studies use both mechanical and electronic coupling to explore some of these behaviors, and in keeping with the Art paradigm, utilize non-scientific means to draw attention to themselves.