Converse and Wofford Students Blend Art with Physics

A Fall Term course brought together not only two Spartanburg colleges, it is also merged art with physics.

The course was focused on kinetic sculpture—work that incorporates the mechanical or random movement of one or more of its parts—and was offered to students of both Converse and Wofford colleges. The finished works, most of which stand 12 to over 20 feet tall, will be displayed on both campuses in late January for several months.

Converse professor of art Mac Boggs and Dr. Dan Lejeune, professor emeritus of physics at Wofford, led the course. Nine students (five from Converse and four from Wofford) participated. The course also attracted the attention of the Spartanburg community as Mike Reynolds, project supervisor of Freedom Fabricators, volunteered to assist in the purchases of steel fabrications, and provide the use of his company’s computer, laser and welding equipment.

“Mac has designed and constructed many unique pieces of kinetic sculpture and is the artist and primary instructor in our group. My job was primarily to advise the physics of motion and material,” explained Lejeune. “So what we have here is an interesting blend of expertise and talent with a metal sculptor, a welding engineer expert and a physicist all looking at the same student-oriented goals from different vantage points.”

According to Boggs, each student had a budget of $1,000 for his or her work and was given total freedom to shape the sculpture as their own minds saw fit. “While all of the works produced in this course are actually at the graduate level, they are very creative and technically challenging ideas that have emanated from the minds of Converse and Wofford undergraduate students. The exhibition of work from this class will be a must visit,” said Boggs.

Just a sampling of the works includes:

• Large steel sculptures that produce spontaneous combustion as the sun passes over a large magnifying lens

• Sound as a wind activated element brushes against a series of pipe forms

• A kaleidoscope into which one walks and becomes part of the fragmented images

• A perpetual pendulum form activated by regular and electro magnets

• A large camera obscura that moves and provides panoramic images

• A rotating landscape

• A canvas and steel wind driven mast

• A stylized full-sized dragster that moves and does wheelies using motors and hydraulics

• A large, water driven sculpture.

Converse senior Courtney Layland used magnets in her sculpture to demonstrate the chaos theory. “My piece features a large pendulum with a magnet on the bottom. Three grounded magnets lie beneath it. An electro magnet is used to keep it in motion,” explained the Fort Worth, TX native and printmaking major. “Because the swing of the pendulum is affected by a number of variables such as speed of the swing itself, wind direction, direction and speed over the three magnets, and movement of the earth on its axis, you will not see the pendulum ever make the same exact movement twice.”

Wofford junior and chemistry major Emily Fort used a Fresnel lens to create fire in her sculpture. The Fresnel lens is a thin, flat optical lens consisting of a series of small narrow concentric grooves on the surface of a lightweight plastic sheet. Each groove is at a slightly different angle than the next and with the same focal length in order to focus the light toward a central focal point. Every groove can be considered as an individual small lens to bend parallel light waves and focus the light. The most recognized use of Fresnel lenses today are in lighthouses around the world as the lens bends and concentrates light into a bright beam. The lens can also create a short intense focal length which can in turn generate intense heat.

The lens used by Fort is rectangular and approximately five feet in length. It is polymer-based and can be bent to sharpen its intensity. During a demonstration of its power, Fort focused the lens on a plastic soda bottle; within seconds smoke began to swirl from the bottle as it degenerated into scorched plastic goo.

“My actual sculpture features two phoenixes made of stainless steel and the lens is mounted on a pyramid,” said Fort. “The lens is mounted a certain way so that at a particular time of the day, the sun rays magnified by the lens will ignite a bowl of material at the feet of one of the phoenixes.”

The course itself was yet another occasion for Converse and Wofford to blend their resources. “This has been a magnificent opportunity to have an art course where Wofford and Converse students and professors work cooperatively, and it’s a partnership that has existed for quite some time,” explained Boggs. “Even back in the 1970s, Wofford students took art courses at Converse and some even earned their degrees in art.”