Mind-Bending Sculptures That Beautifully Animate

Kevin Whipps Last updated: April 15, 2024 · 4 min read

Prepare to be mind blown. John Edmark is an artist that uses math and 3d printing to create eye-catxhing, mind-bending kinetic sculptures. These art pieces are designed to create 3D animations when spun under a strobe light. It’s pretty trippy stuff, and it was built using Autodesk software. As you may or may not know, Autodesk — the company behind the renowned AutoCAD software — actually own Creative Market.
The resulting pieces are spectacular to watchl Just take a look at Blooms 2, one of Edmark’s latest pieces:

BLOOMS 2: Strobe Animated Sculptures Invented by John Edmark from Pier 9 on Vimeo.

Thing is, they’re not moving. They just appear to move because of the way it’s recorded and turned, and that’s cool.
Now that’s great, but he also now has an Instagram page, and it’s packed with other cool movable pieces. Just check out some of these bad boys:

My first Instagram Post! More posts to follow soon. BLOOM: Have a Seat . Blooms are 3D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. Unlike a 3D zoetrope, which animates a sequence of small changes to objects, a bloom animates as a single self-contained sculpture. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotational speed and strobe rate of the bloom are synchronized so that one flash occurs every time the bloom turns 137.5º (the angular version of phi). Each bloom’s particular form and behavior is determined by a unique parametric seed I call a phi-nome (/fī nōm/). . . #EdmarkBloom #JohnEdmark #Zoetrope #MathArt #GeometryArt #GeometricArt #GeometricDesign #animatedsculpture #Spiral #SpiralArt #GoldenRatio #GoldenAngle #GoldenMean #EamesChair #Torus

A video posted by John Edmark (@john.edmark) on Jan 13, 2017 at 5:00pm PST

PatTurn . The two different size gears are in a ratio of 3:4, causing the larger gears to rotate 75% as fast as the smaller gears. So it takes 3 full turns of the larger gear for the pattern to repeat itself. (Laser-cut plywood, paint) #JohnEdmark #MechanicalArt #MathArt #GeometryArt #Turning #Gears #PatternDesign #Grids #RepeatPattern #KineticArt #InteractiveArt #BlackAndWhite

A video posted by John Edmark (@john.edmark) on Jan 16, 2017 at 6:31pm PST

Nautilus Column . Through the use of internal stops, each layer in this tower is constrained to rotate a maximum of 15° relative to its neighboring layer. (Laser-cut MDF) . #JohnEdmark #GeometryArt #MathArt #SpiralArt #Stair #Turning #Disappear #Rotation #Helix #Cone #Column #GeometricArt #geometricdesign #InteractiveArt #KineticArt #stairdesign

A video posted by John Edmark (@john.edmark) on Jan 16, 2017 at 6:14pm PST

BLOOM: Romanesco . Blooms are 3D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. Unlike a 3D zoetrope, which animates a sequence of small changes to objects, a bloom animates as a single self-contained sculpture. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotational speed and strobe rate of the bloom are synchronized so that one flash occurs every time the bloom turns 137.5º (the angular version of phi). Each bloom’s particular form and behavior is determined by a unique parametric seed I call a phi-nome (/fī nōm/). . . #EdmarkBloom #JohnEdmark #Zoetrope #MathArt #GeometryArt #GeometricArt #GeometricDesign #ParametricArt #ParametricDesign #AnimatedSculpture #Fractal #FractalArt #AmazingFractals #NatureArt #Romanesco #RomanescoBroccoli #Recursive #Spiral #SpiralArt #GoldenRatio #GoldenAngle #GoldenMean #Fibonacci #FibonacciSpiral #FibonacciSequence #Phyllotaxis #NaturalPatterns

A video posted by John Edmark (@john.edmark) on Jan 15, 2017 at 12:39am PST

BLOOM: Dilation . Blooms are 3D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. Unlike a 3D zoetrope, which animates a sequence of small changes to objects, a bloom animates as a single self-contained sculpture. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotational speed and strobe rate of the bloom are synchronized so that one flash occurs every time the bloom turns 137.5º (the angular version of phi). Each bloom’s particular form and behavior is determined by a unique parametric seed I call a phi-nome (/fī nōm/). . . #EdmarkBloom #JohnEdmark #Zoetrope #MathArt #GeometryArt #ParametricArt #ParametricDesign #GeometricArt #GeometricDesign #animatedsculpture #Spiral #SpiralArt #GoldenRatio #GoldenAngle #GoldenMean #Fibonacci #FibonacciSpiral #FibonacciSequence #Phyllotaxis #NaturalPatterns #Dome

A video posted by John Edmark (@john.edmark) on Jan 15, 2017 at 12:29am PST

And as if that wasn’t enough, not only can you buy one of these sculptures yourself, you can also learn how to build one. What this all tells me is that art is in what you make, no matter whether it involves complex mathematics or a pencil and paper. I love this stuff.

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About the Author

Kevin Whipps

Hi! My name is Kevin Whipps, and I'm a writer and editor based in Phoenix, Arizona. When I'm not working taking pictures of old cars and trucks, I'm either writing articles for Creative Market or hawking stickers at Whipps Sticker Co.

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