True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

By Arthur Ganson
2004, 70 min.
Available from
arthurganson.com
Arthur Ganson Presents a Few Machines
Cool and useless. That’s my definition of art. A midnight engineer and MIT professor creates
totally useless machines. They are exquisitely beautiful. They do absolutely nothing. At best they
whir and click and shake. A genuine artist, he also has filmed his machines obliquely, only partially
seen, behind a veil of mystery. You want to know how they work, what they do, how come?
No answers. Only peeks at cool and useless machines in marvelous varieties and cleverness,
turning, turning, turning. Utterly riveting, supremely inspiring, and very geeky. Show this at a
party, and everyone stops, transfixed.
Arthur Ganson’s creations include
a dried artichoke petal affixed to a
brass arm which walks it slowly
across a metallic disk (above). A
massive machine on a wheeledtrack
(left) will grab a chair in its
way, hoist it above itself and then
set the chair down in exactly its
original spot as it passes under it.
Then it reverses and does the same
all over again.
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