Mechanisms at Play: The Audio-Kinetic Sculptures of George Rhoads

August 11, 2021 7:55 PM

May I interest you in a moment of mechanical joy? George Rhoads, the man who designed delightful kinetic sculptures made of twists and turns and gears and track, died on July 9, 2021. His audio-kinetic ball machines can be found across the United States, from the New York Port Authority (42nd Street Ballroom; YT), to the Radys Children's Hospital in San Diego, California, and beyond. He spoke about his life's work in an interview in 2015.

“Each pathway that the ball takes is a different drama, as I call it, because the events happen in a certain sequence, analogous to drama...The ball gets into certain difficulties. It does a few things. Maybe there’s some conflict. They hit or they wander, whatever it is and then there’s some kind of dramatic conclusion.”

Tribute: 'A Little Mechanical World': Remembering George Rhoads, The Artist Behind Chase Field's Ball Machine (kjzz.org)

Wonder: A visit with Mr. Rogers (pbs.org)

Reflection: A 20-minute documentary (YT), George Rhoads Ball Machine. "I suppose ultimately [the ball machines] are idealistic, but not in the sense of inspiring, but it's simply showing how things are, this is how life is, interesting, very wonderful...all of life, here it is. Look at it, that's all."

posted by MonkeyToes (18 comments total)

I loved the one in Kobe. I remember spending so much time watching it whenever I was in town while my friends were shopping. I've spent a lot of time looking at the one at the Ontario Science Centre as well and never even thought the two could be made by the same person. So much fun to be had following the balls around, seeing how the different paths meet up and all of the different sounds that are made. I'm not going to say I could look at them forever and not get bored but I could definitely spend a lot of time looking at them. I'm also surprised but not surprised by the number of installations in Japan.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 8:22 PM on August 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

I remember one of these at a strip mall in Hamden, CT when I was growing up that absolutely transfixed me. That mall also had other interesting art, makes me curious about the ownership.

Update: more about the art at Hamden Plaza strip mall.
posted by migurski at 9:22 PM on August 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

When my child was little, maybe four years old, we took her to the Museum of Science in Boston. One of the first things we stumbled upon was the (I assume) George Rhoads audio-kenetic sculpture they have. We were unable to tear her away for FIVE HOURS. She just stared and stared for the whole time. At first it was cute, then it got annoying, then it got weird, and eventually I think it got cute again.

Thank you for this post, it has brought back some memories that I'd almost forgotten.
posted by bondcliff at 9:50 PM on August 11, 2021 [10 favorites]

I looked into the cost of purchasing a ball machine at some point a few years ago -- I remember there were some smaller ones (only 5'x3') available at not entirely "unreasonable" prices (for what they are, I think it was maybe in the low 10s of thousands?). I mean, still unaffordable and also I definitely don't have a house that could reasonably hold one, but I can dream, right?

We also ran into one at an airport with my child (probably around 3 or 4 at the time?) and I was probably more excited than he was.

I adore things things and their clangy tinkly bangy noises.
posted by that girl at 10:39 PM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I was teaching at Dartmouth on my first postdoc, I volunteered at the Montshire Museum of Science just across the river. The Montshire has one of Rhoads' pieces, The Odyssey of the Spheres, on display over along one wall near the back. Before the museum opened, while I was puttering around making sure everything was set up, I would often just stop and watch, and more importantly, listen, to the sculpture. In the linked video, there's a little yellow cylinder on the left side of the piece that had been plonked for years and years and years, and it had a little bit of wear on it, which was nice to see. I've seen quite a few at various museums over the years, but I liked that at a tiny little science museum along a river, one is just churning away every day.
posted by RubixsQube at 11:40 PM on August 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

That was wonderful thanks - enjoy Rhoades' deliberate un-blackboxing, reminds me of Graham Dunning's Mechanical techno. I can watch these sorts of things for ... too long.
posted by unearthed at 11:47 PM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

There's one called 'Global Circus' in the Northland shopping centre here in Melbourne - a relatively minor mall that has always seemed such an odd place for such a renowned artist to have a work. There's only a tiny plaque on it to give you any information, and most of the copy on the web actually talks about the Timezone arcade next to it.

This is a fucking odd country.
posted by prismatic7 at 4:09 AM on August 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

There is, or was, a very cool kinetic ball-machine sculpture at the Maryland Science Center, but a cursory search hasn't told me whether it's a Rhoades or not.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:24 AM on August 12, 2021

I can't find the one I happened across somewhere in Kansai. It wasn't Din Don in Kobe I don't think, because it was underground. I don't think it was the one at Himeji since it's next to a window and I remember it being dark, but maybe it was just night.

Now I'm going to spend the day on a google quest.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:33 AM on August 12, 2021

Yay! Our Color Coaster is in the collection. I never knew where it came from.
posted by sundrop at 6:49 AM on August 12, 2021

Thank you for making this post, MonkeyToes. I’ve been failing to act on the impulse to do so myself and I’m glad it’s here.

I loved Rhoads’s sculptures whenever I encountered them as a child. I suspect I spent a long time staring at the one at Boston Children’s Hospital, and I know I did at the Boston Museum of Science where, many years since, my own children have spent hours transfixed. I have always loved marble runs and similar constructions and Rhoads might be the reason why.

It does feel a little surprising to me now that these remarkable sculptures were commissioned for smaller venues as well, but hey, there one was in the Underground section of the Allendale shopping center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and I used to stop and watch that one too whenever I was there. Rhoads’s 1983 sculpture “Having a Ball” is mentioned in a 13 year old comment here, and the now-broken link in that comment can be found in the Internet Archive with information about many other Rhoads works.
posted by Songdog at 7:13 AM on August 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

There used to be one of Rhoads's kinetic sculptures in the food court/arcade/indoor midway section of my local deadmall, Forest Fair Mall (aka Cincinnati Mills, aka Cincinnati Mall), which opened in the late '80s and had turned into a ghost town by the year 2000.

I think the ball machine ran for maybe 2 or 3 years before it started to break down, which coincided with when the mall started losing tenants and cutting back its amusement-park offerings. I'd go back to the mall every few months and discover that some part of the machine had been inelegantly repaired or ripped out completely by maintenance, changing its motions or sound to something less delightful every time. It always coincided with some other unique feature being removed from the mall, which made Rhoads's sculpture into kind of a synecdoche of the whole enterprise. (The machine's current whereabouts are unknown.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:33 AM on August 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

When my son was pre-kindergarten, we used to seek these out around the New York area. We spent hours watching the 42nd Street Ballroom, and it was a family tragedy when it was closed for repairs for a long period. We also loved Newton's Dream at the Franklin Institute in Philadephia (which seems to have since passed on).

These are amazing works of art, and all the more amazing because they are temporary. They break down, they require fine tuning and repairs. They require a lot of institutional buy-in to keep up.
posted by rikschell at 8:49 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Montshire Museum is a family favorite and I always want to hang out with the Rhoads sculpture longer than my kids will tolerate. It’s a couple hours away, so we only head there annually, but what a delight!
posted by dehowell at 9:04 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have extremely fond memories of Science on a Roll at the San Jose Tech Museum. It was massive, one of his bigger ones using billiard balls.

I recall building smaller marble machines at home using parts of other toys, paper towel rolls, and the tops of 2 liter soda bottles. Legitimately if my job could be making these things all day, it would be my dream job.

Does anyone know the location/status of the one at LAX, Angel Music? I'm assuming it's in storage somewhere in disrepair, nothing besides his wiki or other bios seems to mention it at all. Either that or some LA moneybags snapped it up for their private collection.
posted by JauntyFedora at 10:13 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

OMG Forest Fair Mall! I had relatives in Cincinnati and remember going there a lot, but not for shopping because Tri-County was much better for that. I don't remember the kinetic sculpture but I must have seen it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:11 AM on August 12, 2021

When my child was little, maybe four years old, we took her to the Museum of Science in Boston. One of the first things we stumbled upon was the (I assume) George Rhoads audio-kenetic sculpture they have. We were unable to tear her away for FIVE HOURS.

The NYT obit mentions the machine at BMOS—it's apparently titled “Archimedean Excogitation” and was installed in 1987.

I have a distinct recollection of going there and seeing the machine when it must have been fairly new, and staring at it for what was undoubtedly to my parents an obnoxiously long time. I think they only lured me away with the promise of seeing an IMAX movie. (BMOS had, and hopefully still has, a real half-dome IMAX theater, not this paltry stuff they're throwing the IMAX name on now. If it doesn't make at least one person puke during each showing, I'm sorry but that just isn't real IMAX.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:16 AM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

This immediately reminded me of the sculpture outside Vancouver's Science World, according to a bit of googling it is apparently Rhoads, built originally for a Kamloops Mall.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:50 PM on August 12, 2021