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The Sculptor as an Artist and Engineer
Copyright © IFAC Automated Systems Based on Human Skill , Berlin, Germany, 1995
THE SCULPTOR AS AN ARTIST AND ENGINEER H. Bigelmayr* (Transl. D. Brandt**)
* FeichthofstT.
lOO, D - 81247 Munich, Germany
** University of Technology (RWTH), Depanmenl of 1nformatics in Mechanical Engineering (HDZl1MA), D-52068 Aachen, Germany
Abstract--ln this presentation, the author reports on his experiences as a sculptor to create and build a large wooden sculpture for public view in Munich, Germany. During the process of modelling and building the sculpture, the artist turned engineer solving genuine engineering problems. His work included designing a new building construction to obtain wheather shielding for his work area; designing new cranes to move about the parts of the sculpture for assembly etc. This paper is based on an interview with the artist. Key-Words: Human-Centred design, Human factors, Modelling characterized by the very obvious and strange shape of a man-made mountain. It contains the bulk of the rubble which was transported out of the city of Munich after its air-raid destruction 1944/45 in order to make it possible to rebuild the city . - The overall shape of the sculpture was to clearly resemble life-forms as an obvious contrast to the geometrical-rectangular or circular shapes which characterize the laboratory buildings. - The vertical parts of the stem and the leaves were to correspond to the two large chimneys of the (never used) nuclear research reactor which dominate the laboratory buildings. - The sculpture was to stand on a small mound in order to be easily visible against the buildings. Trees were to be planted behind the sculpture to form a background from one aspect. Thus, the sculpture would be more visible than if it were merely seen against rows of windows . The sculpture was to be dark in colour against the green of the trees and the white of the buildings .
In 1990, the Bavarian State Research Institute of Nuclear Radiation, Health and the Environment, Munich, advertised the commission to create a large sculpture to commemorate the opening of its new laboratory compound. For this competition, I submitted the model of a corn stalk broken off at a certain height and its main part lying on the ground. The stalk: itself was broken off at a height of about 10 cm. The other part formed a kind of arch which extended over a distance of about 20 cm. One of its leaves was bound around the stalk. The model was, thus, about natural size. My concept was to enlarge this model lOO times its size. It was to be built of the trunks of German oak trees so as to last several hundred years in the open air. I had modelled the sculpture fIrst by carving it very delicately out of light wood (ash) and then by casting it in bronce for submission at the competition. The model was already designed to correspond in detail to the architecture and the setting of the laboratory buildings from the point of view of people entering the compound by car or on foot and continuing towards the buildings which would lead them around the sculpture. My vision, thus, was to integrate the following elements: - The fIrst view of the arch was to re-model the line of the horizon far beyond the sculpture. This horizon is
made these pre-decisions while talking to the architects designing the new laboratory buildings and while these buildings were being erected. Thus, I was trying to identify with the architects and the builders as well as with the users of the laboratories: how they see the buildings and their environment; how they
253
experience their different professional challenges taking place on this compound.
tasks
and
length of the work area. Thus, the new sculpture would just fit in if mounted diagonally. The main problem, however, turned out to be the height of the sculpture. The horizontal ceiling of the stable was far too low. Hence , I took out the whole ceiling. In order to keep the stable from collapsing, I designed a completely new interior building construction - against all official building regulations. On each side of the stable, I introduced 3 large supports which reached from the foundations of the two side walls straight up into the roof to carry the main beam of the roof. Thus I turned the stable in its construction into a tent like structure . Only after I had fmished everything I did dare to show the new design to the regional Board of Builders and Architects - and they were both shocked and excited. Since then, the building has withstood several very severe storms without showing any sign of weakness .
I was very surprised when I was preliminarily informed that I had won the competition. I had not expected my strange non-geometrical design to appeal to the taste of today 's architects and scientists . Now I suddenly had to develop an engineering strategy to build this broken stalk with an overall length of about 30 m, its main height being nearly 7 m. Up to then, I had already created several large sculptures symbolizing different life forms: large leaves or stalks, also an ear of grain to walk around or under them. I had carved them from light wood, e.g. maple or ash trees, to be placed indoors: in a large stairwell of a government building, in an exhibition hall etc . Now I had to fmd about 10 large oak trees, cut them to size and link them in a way to last almost for ever in the open! Therefore I started to look for such trees even before I had the official contract. I travelled almost the whole of Germany in order to fmd such oak trees . Nobody, however, was willing to cut down such beautiful trees for my sculpture - quite understandably. Then the famous hurricane "Wiebke" hit Germany and threw down a whole forrest of ancient oak trees near Munich! I had exactly 1 week given to me by the forrester to disentangle the huge mess of old trees lying on the ground, and to get hold of those trunks best suited for my sculpture, because the week after, the whole forrest was to be sold in bulk to one of the biggest German saw mills and I would no longer have been allowed to remove even one trunk. At that time I did not even have a place to put these big trees, neither did I yet have the official contract. I had to risk everything if I wanted to have a chance to complete the commission.
In the next phase of work, I had to design two special cranes for the tasks involved. One crane was to become a fourlegged gantry crane moving on four wheels . It was to pick up the trunks to enable me to move them about manUally. No forklift would have been strong enough to handle these trunks within the space available on the farmyard and through the stable door. I designed this crane to have the 4 legs adjustable in length, so that it would fit in height through the frame of the stable door. It was build by a small local metal company according to my design. The other crane was to be standing firmly secured on the floor of the stable its arm stretching across the full inner width of the stable. It was to hold and move about the full weight of the trunks to be worked on and to be linked together for the fmal design of the sculpture . I had a lot of arguments with the engineers of our local metal company about how to build this crane because I was fighting for every cm of height or horizontal extension to fit into the tent-like structure of the stable. After all, the trunks making up the main arch of the sculpture had to be moved upwards to a height of more than 3 m. In its fmal shape, the arm of this crane moved freely with just about 1 cm to spare before touching one of the main "tent" supports . The foot of the crane was buried several meters deep in concrete .
An old uncle of mine had a farm not far from this (former) oak forest. It had been in the family for several generations . There was no direct heir when he was forced because of his ill health to leave it to go into a retirement home . When he heard my story he was at once willing to sell the farm to me for a very reasonable price - but still a fortune for me. It was about half the money I was expecting out of the commission. On Monday , I had seen the forrester; on Tuesday I had met my uncle ; on Thursday I signed the contract to take over the farm, on Saturday, Sunday we got hold of the 10 huge trunks each weighing many tons, and we transponed them to the old farm . Several weeks later I fmally got the signed contract for the commission which allowed me to officially start on the sculpture .
After all this preparatory engineering work I was able to start on the sculpture itself. I was originally trained as a wood sculptor creating human-size sculptures and developing further the art of creating nature-like shapes in light wood . Additionally I had developed thorough competence and experience in metal casting. Therefore I firstly made another larger model cast in bronce , as the main source of data for the construction of the sculpture. During this process I learned from viewing tests that I even had to increase the overall height of the main arch in order to correspond to my vision of the fmal design - which made my task even more difficult.
I decided to use the old stable of the farm as my new workshop. I cleared the stable of all the old farm gear and of the remains of 100 years farming history. I had to pave the whole stable and to demolish one of the walls in order to integrate the pigsty for additional
254
Now I was able to choose the parts of the 10 different trunks which came closest in shape and strength to the different parts of the sculpture - very much as the old shipbuilders did when they cut down exactly those trees in the forest which came closest to their drawings of the different parts of the ship's hull.
strange shapes of huge insects - set in an environment which has been thoroughly shaped by man.
From my previous experience in light wood, I knew that I had to hollow out the trunks' marrow in order to make it last without cracking radially all the way through the centre of the trunk. It is easily done in ash wood - it turned out to be a major task to do it in old oak trees. With my hand-held chainsaw, I made a slit along the main length of the trunk. Through this slit, I made deep cuts into the trunk changing both angle and depth of cutting until only a few centimeters of the outer 'skin' of the trunk was left. Thus the slit just widens or narrows minutely according to whether the trunk becomes humid and wet or the wood dries out. I have never heart of anybody else using this technique except the carvers of the famous wooden sculptures of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, who hollowedout their sculptures from the back and closed the opening afterwards with a matching piece of wood. In the [mal design, these slits in the trunks would point towards the ground to prevent damage by rain. The joints of the trunks, however, had also to be protected against the intrusion of water. Hence, I designed a type of joint which is completely hidden from the exterior view except for one seam: One of the two trunks to be joined was cut open from underneath so as to take the bulk of the material of the other trunk. Thus the skin of the one trunk protects all the inner seams of the joint against rain. The joints were secured by both tightly fitting wooden wedges and steel nuts and bolts. The arch was set on bolts mounted in concrete. The upright part of the stem which extends nearly 10 meters vertically, was to be sunk into a concrete bed to a depth of nearly 3 m. In order to test the [mal assembly I had to prepare my stable exactly as the mound would be prepared to take up the sculpture. It was a major task of earth-moving and construction of foundations, adjusting and readjusting the many different parts of the sculpture and the foundations. During this time I became seriously ill and had to postpone the [mal assembly for nearly a year. I continued my work, however, between phases of treatment and despite my weakness - the sculpture had become a kind of obsession. Today the sculpture stands on its mound exactly as I envisaged it. It has developed its dark "tan" exactly as I hoped, due to the impact of the weather on the old oak wood. Most viewers are impressed by its " living " quality, resembling both forms of plant life and the
255
Fig . 1:
The Broken Corn Stalk - The Limits of Growth. Oak wood. length 30 m. height 7 m. Munich 1992
256
THE SCULPTOR AS AN ARTIST AND ENGINEER H. Bigelmayr* (Transl. D. Brandt**)
* FeichthofstT.
lOO, D - 81247 Munich, Germany
** University of Technology (RWTH), Depanmenl of 1nformatics in Mechanical Engineering (HDZl1MA), D-52068 Aachen, Germany
Abstract--ln this presentation, the author reports on his experiences as a sculptor to create and build a large wooden sculpture for public view in Munich, Germany. During the process of modelling and building the sculpture, the artist turned engineer solving genuine engineering problems. His work included designing a new building construction to obtain wheather shielding for his work area; designing new cranes to move about the parts of the sculpture for assembly etc. This paper is based on an interview with the artist. Key-Words: Human-Centred design, Human factors, Modelling characterized by the very obvious and strange shape of a man-made mountain. It contains the bulk of the rubble which was transported out of the city of Munich after its air-raid destruction 1944/45 in order to make it possible to rebuild the city . - The overall shape of the sculpture was to clearly resemble life-forms as an obvious contrast to the geometrical-rectangular or circular shapes which characterize the laboratory buildings. - The vertical parts of the stem and the leaves were to correspond to the two large chimneys of the (never used) nuclear research reactor which dominate the laboratory buildings. - The sculpture was to stand on a small mound in order to be easily visible against the buildings. Trees were to be planted behind the sculpture to form a background from one aspect. Thus, the sculpture would be more visible than if it were merely seen against rows of windows . The sculpture was to be dark in colour against the green of the trees and the white of the buildings .
In 1990, the Bavarian State Research Institute of Nuclear Radiation, Health and the Environment, Munich, advertised the commission to create a large sculpture to commemorate the opening of its new laboratory compound. For this competition, I submitted the model of a corn stalk broken off at a certain height and its main part lying on the ground. The stalk: itself was broken off at a height of about 10 cm. The other part formed a kind of arch which extended over a distance of about 20 cm. One of its leaves was bound around the stalk. The model was, thus, about natural size. My concept was to enlarge this model lOO times its size. It was to be built of the trunks of German oak trees so as to last several hundred years in the open air. I had modelled the sculpture fIrst by carving it very delicately out of light wood (ash) and then by casting it in bronce for submission at the competition. The model was already designed to correspond in detail to the architecture and the setting of the laboratory buildings from the point of view of people entering the compound by car or on foot and continuing towards the buildings which would lead them around the sculpture. My vision, thus, was to integrate the following elements: - The fIrst view of the arch was to re-model the line of the horizon far beyond the sculpture. This horizon is
made these pre-decisions while talking to the architects designing the new laboratory buildings and while these buildings were being erected. Thus, I was trying to identify with the architects and the builders as well as with the users of the laboratories: how they see the buildings and their environment; how they
253
experience their different professional challenges taking place on this compound.
tasks
and
length of the work area. Thus, the new sculpture would just fit in if mounted diagonally. The main problem, however, turned out to be the height of the sculpture. The horizontal ceiling of the stable was far too low. Hence , I took out the whole ceiling. In order to keep the stable from collapsing, I designed a completely new interior building construction - against all official building regulations. On each side of the stable, I introduced 3 large supports which reached from the foundations of the two side walls straight up into the roof to carry the main beam of the roof. Thus I turned the stable in its construction into a tent like structure . Only after I had fmished everything I did dare to show the new design to the regional Board of Builders and Architects - and they were both shocked and excited. Since then, the building has withstood several very severe storms without showing any sign of weakness .
I was very surprised when I was preliminarily informed that I had won the competition. I had not expected my strange non-geometrical design to appeal to the taste of today 's architects and scientists . Now I suddenly had to develop an engineering strategy to build this broken stalk with an overall length of about 30 m, its main height being nearly 7 m. Up to then, I had already created several large sculptures symbolizing different life forms: large leaves or stalks, also an ear of grain to walk around or under them. I had carved them from light wood, e.g. maple or ash trees, to be placed indoors: in a large stairwell of a government building, in an exhibition hall etc . Now I had to fmd about 10 large oak trees, cut them to size and link them in a way to last almost for ever in the open! Therefore I started to look for such trees even before I had the official contract. I travelled almost the whole of Germany in order to fmd such oak trees . Nobody, however, was willing to cut down such beautiful trees for my sculpture - quite understandably. Then the famous hurricane "Wiebke" hit Germany and threw down a whole forrest of ancient oak trees near Munich! I had exactly 1 week given to me by the forrester to disentangle the huge mess of old trees lying on the ground, and to get hold of those trunks best suited for my sculpture, because the week after, the whole forrest was to be sold in bulk to one of the biggest German saw mills and I would no longer have been allowed to remove even one trunk. At that time I did not even have a place to put these big trees, neither did I yet have the official contract. I had to risk everything if I wanted to have a chance to complete the commission.
In the next phase of work, I had to design two special cranes for the tasks involved. One crane was to become a fourlegged gantry crane moving on four wheels . It was to pick up the trunks to enable me to move them about manUally. No forklift would have been strong enough to handle these trunks within the space available on the farmyard and through the stable door. I designed this crane to have the 4 legs adjustable in length, so that it would fit in height through the frame of the stable door. It was build by a small local metal company according to my design. The other crane was to be standing firmly secured on the floor of the stable its arm stretching across the full inner width of the stable. It was to hold and move about the full weight of the trunks to be worked on and to be linked together for the fmal design of the sculpture . I had a lot of arguments with the engineers of our local metal company about how to build this crane because I was fighting for every cm of height or horizontal extension to fit into the tent-like structure of the stable. After all, the trunks making up the main arch of the sculpture had to be moved upwards to a height of more than 3 m. In its fmal shape, the arm of this crane moved freely with just about 1 cm to spare before touching one of the main "tent" supports . The foot of the crane was buried several meters deep in concrete .
An old uncle of mine had a farm not far from this (former) oak forest. It had been in the family for several generations . There was no direct heir when he was forced because of his ill health to leave it to go into a retirement home . When he heard my story he was at once willing to sell the farm to me for a very reasonable price - but still a fortune for me. It was about half the money I was expecting out of the commission. On Monday , I had seen the forrester; on Tuesday I had met my uncle ; on Thursday I signed the contract to take over the farm, on Saturday, Sunday we got hold of the 10 huge trunks each weighing many tons, and we transponed them to the old farm . Several weeks later I fmally got the signed contract for the commission which allowed me to officially start on the sculpture .
After all this preparatory engineering work I was able to start on the sculpture itself. I was originally trained as a wood sculptor creating human-size sculptures and developing further the art of creating nature-like shapes in light wood . Additionally I had developed thorough competence and experience in metal casting. Therefore I firstly made another larger model cast in bronce , as the main source of data for the construction of the sculpture. During this process I learned from viewing tests that I even had to increase the overall height of the main arch in order to correspond to my vision of the fmal design - which made my task even more difficult.
I decided to use the old stable of the farm as my new workshop. I cleared the stable of all the old farm gear and of the remains of 100 years farming history. I had to pave the whole stable and to demolish one of the walls in order to integrate the pigsty for additional
254
Now I was able to choose the parts of the 10 different trunks which came closest in shape and strength to the different parts of the sculpture - very much as the old shipbuilders did when they cut down exactly those trees in the forest which came closest to their drawings of the different parts of the ship's hull.
strange shapes of huge insects - set in an environment which has been thoroughly shaped by man.
From my previous experience in light wood, I knew that I had to hollow out the trunks' marrow in order to make it last without cracking radially all the way through the centre of the trunk. It is easily done in ash wood - it turned out to be a major task to do it in old oak trees. With my hand-held chainsaw, I made a slit along the main length of the trunk. Through this slit, I made deep cuts into the trunk changing both angle and depth of cutting until only a few centimeters of the outer 'skin' of the trunk was left. Thus the slit just widens or narrows minutely according to whether the trunk becomes humid and wet or the wood dries out. I have never heart of anybody else using this technique except the carvers of the famous wooden sculptures of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, who hollowedout their sculptures from the back and closed the opening afterwards with a matching piece of wood. In the [mal design, these slits in the trunks would point towards the ground to prevent damage by rain. The joints of the trunks, however, had also to be protected against the intrusion of water. Hence, I designed a type of joint which is completely hidden from the exterior view except for one seam: One of the two trunks to be joined was cut open from underneath so as to take the bulk of the material of the other trunk. Thus the skin of the one trunk protects all the inner seams of the joint against rain. The joints were secured by both tightly fitting wooden wedges and steel nuts and bolts. The arch was set on bolts mounted in concrete. The upright part of the stem which extends nearly 10 meters vertically, was to be sunk into a concrete bed to a depth of nearly 3 m. In order to test the [mal assembly I had to prepare my stable exactly as the mound would be prepared to take up the sculpture. It was a major task of earth-moving and construction of foundations, adjusting and readjusting the many different parts of the sculpture and the foundations. During this time I became seriously ill and had to postpone the [mal assembly for nearly a year. I continued my work, however, between phases of treatment and despite my weakness - the sculpture had become a kind of obsession. Today the sculpture stands on its mound exactly as I envisaged it. It has developed its dark "tan" exactly as I hoped, due to the impact of the weather on the old oak wood. Most viewers are impressed by its " living " quality, resembling both forms of plant life and the
255
Fig . 1:
The Broken Corn Stalk - The Limits of Growth. Oak wood. length 30 m. height 7 m. Munich 1992
256