Kinetic Sculpture,2008

 

 

 

Wood Digit involves the control of over a hundred wooden units which, by moving to different heights, display numerals as in a programmed system. Instead of using microchips and electronic circuits to program, the mechanism has been woven as a big matrix with threads, and supported by a specially designed wooden structure and pulley system. Developed from the numbers displayed on the computer monitor, Wood Digit is built as an oversized, pixilated numerical display in wood. It transforms color gradation into height variations, and also prolongs the change between numbers. The use of wood as a material and the loom-like structure of this piece refers to the renowned Jacquard Loom. The Jacquard loom with its punch-card system, used to store programs for complicated weaving patterns, inspired early computing machinery.