Can You Feel the Tension?

Description:This kinetic sculpture relies on the tension of the strings to move the wood pieces in a wave motion. By moving the strings tied together inside of the hula hoop it creates the wave-like form. This project is a fun project for anybody because you can improvise the materials and make it your own.

Step 1: Materials

- Hollow hula hoop

-½ inch PVC pipe 14 feet long

-Two ½ inch PVC L corner pieces

-Two ½ inch PVC T-stands

-13 hooks

-12 washers or easily attached weights

-Gorilla glue

-Durable thin string (a lot)

-Drill

-Bolts

-Roughly 12x2 inch lightweight wooden
board

-Spray paint

-Sander

-Duct tape

Step 2: Procedures

1. For the structure cut a 10ft piece
of PVC pipe into 3rd’s, connect 3 poles with L shape pieces with one
pole horizontal on top held by other 2 poles vertically

2. To make the bottom of the structure
cut 4 1ft pieces of PVC pipe and connect to the bottom of the vertical poles
using the T-stands

3. On the horizontal PVC pipe screw in 13
hooks equally spaced on the bottom half of the pole all facing in the same direction.
4. Attach the hula hoop to the
middle of one of the vertical poles and duct tape it in place, then measure out
a set of 12 equally spaced small dots on the inner side of the hula hoop (see
picture.) Then measure out another set of 12 dots ¼ around the side of the hula
hoop directly next to the 1st set. Drill all 24 holes

5. Feed a 4 1/2 ft piece string through 1 hole and
out the other directly next to it. Do this for all 12 sets of 2 holes that are
next to each other with 12 separate strings. Tie all strings together in the
middle of the hula hoop

6. Attach the top string on the hula
hoop to the farthest hook on the pipe through all of the hooks. Then do the
same with the next string but, stop at the second furthest hook. Continue those
steps with all the strings, and then tie a slip knot at the bottom of each
string

7. Cut the wood board into 12, 1X3 inch pieces, drill
one hole big enough for the bolts to fit on each side of all the pieces.

8. When putting the wood pieces together
layer the holes on top of each other and alternate the sides where they are
connected.

9. To connect the wood pieces use
bolts to screw in and alternate the direction they are put in

10. Attach the slip knots to the bolts in the wood pieces, and gorilla glue them together,
also glue on the washers to each piece so they do not interfere with the
movement of the wave