Inspiration helps us to find ways how to realize what we are after. To use new impulses for our own benefit, it so valuable to grasp the essence of what we see, because then we can work with it creatively. Menperium builds sculptures to convey a concept for insight and understanding, with the intend to inspire people. Next to this, it should be attractive to look at. Even if the sculpture evokes fully unrelated thoughts, it does what it is designed for. A sculpture can be a wonderful object to communicate an organization's main product or service to visitors, associates or anybody who is curious. Thanks to my background in engineering I design and build sculptures with pleasure. If you want to show a concept in a memorable way, let us know. The sculptures shown below are available. Remarks, questions or requests are welcome.

What inspired me?

In 2012, I was in the science museum in San Jose, California. Outside was a huge ball machine, also called rolling ball sculpture (RBS), right picture. After some research I found out that the RBS was designed by George Rhoads. In 2014, I had the opportunity to visit George in Ithaca in the state New York (USA) and met him a couple of times thereafter. He made over 250 audio kinetic ball sculptures. One of his first designs, which is on Wikipedia, is in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. In 2014 it was broken. As I heard, for quite a while. I contacted PA and asked if I could buy the sculpture or that it could be repaired. That same year, PA found budget to restore it. The picture on the left is from 2016. The RBS was nicely refurbished by Creative Machines. Thanks to a maintenance contract it should stay operational. The rolling ball sculptures inspired me to make functional sculptures. I believe that insight in the essence of a concept will inspire someone to create new ideas for his or her own aspirations, sometimes in a completely different field.

Sculptures

Binary Calculator Sculpture Several years of designing and building resulted in a beautiful sculpture. First of all, it is fun to see the balls lifted by the lifts, run over the tracks, go through clocked gates and back to where they came from. Secondly, when you look at it from a designers point of view, you will realize how much details and design work is in there to get it functional and robust. Thirdly, the sculpture shows the concept of binary calculation. When pushing the start-button it will start a calculation with two random numbers. With a switch underneath the sculpture the auto-mode can be activate, then it runs every 15 minutes by itself. Videos of the final version and intermediate stages, are on the "Making of" page as well as on YouTube. Watch the video of the fully completed Bin-Calc. Enjoy also intermediate stages. The one-bit version and the two-bits version are easy to understand, the three-bits version can add numbers up to 7 and the four-bits version is the fully functional core. The sculpture is made from plexiglass, brass tracks and 3D printed connectors. Dimensions are 2.06m height, 2.04m width, 1.02m depth and weighs close to 300kg. The sculpture will definitely draw the attention of people passing. It is best placed at an entrance, museum, public place or at an exhibition. This Binary Calculator is for rent. If you want to order the Bin-Calc sculpture, allow us some time to build the new sculpture. For rent or order, please contact us. You can find a full report, including several videos, on the "BinCalc Sulpture, Making of" page.

Transistor show table This transistor show table is a great sculpture for a high-tech company to show the passion for technology. The transistor symbol will impress customers and motivate employees. The show table is ideal at the entrance to show a product or present folders, notebooks, pens or other gadgets. A screen could be placed in the middle to show company information or inspirational quotes, provided by Menperium. A picture of the show table with screen is shown on the "Making of" page. The sculpture is made of black scaffolding tubes. The arrow that characterizes the transistor is 3D printed and the tabletop is made of plexiglass. The mechanical support at the back is designed as a resistor. Optionally, lights can be mounted at the top ends. The size of the sculpture can be customized. The default dimensions are; height x width x depth = 190cm x 110cm x 90cm. The plexiglass tabletop is 100cm x 60cm. The scaffolding tubes have a diameter of 48.3mm. This sculpture is for sale, if you are interested please contact us. The picture is taken at Elect High-Tech Electronics in Weerselo (NL). Take a look at the "Making of".

Body-mind-heart-spirit These four dimensions are the fundamentals of a human being or organization. It applies to a person as well as to a family or company. This sculpture helps to get better insight in what to do to reach a goal. All four dimensions need to be taken into account to be successful. Success means, reaching what you aimed for, not necessarily prestige. At the top, the goal will be written. On the cards you write the actions with respect to that specific dimension, with the highest priority on the top branch. At the bottom and on the trunk you can write core values, that are at the roots of everything you do. Thanks to the exercise of populating the sculpture, a team will learn about each other's values and strengths. The sculpture is for sale and consist of 4mm thick transparent plexiglass. Depth and width are 54cm, height is 42cm. It can easily be demounted. Interest to obtain this sculpture? Let us know. Look at the Body-Mind-Heart-Spirit page for further explanation and the "Making of”. See the video how a company’s culture can be improved, based on this model. And the model is used to predict product needs. Watch the experience of using a car in 2050.

Digital feedback audio amplifier For the company Axign a sculpture has been designed to show the essence of their highly innovative amplifier, being an audio amplifier with true digital feedback that enables sublime sound performance. When the initial design drawings were available, the sculpture has been presented to the company to provide feedback so that the modifications for improvements can be made before physically creating the sculpture. This review resulted in some really nice additions to even better convey the essence of the amplifier. Due to financial priorities, the realization of the sculpture has been delayed.

Student assignments

Several students worked on assignments, in cooperation with Creative Technology at the University of Twente. Below you see the sculpture design projects. You will also find other interesting student projects on the Menperium website.

Physical phenomenon: Hourly Glass First year students Karsten Dietvorst, Sun Ok, Pepijn Peeters, Philippe Tuinman and Gijs Verhoeven got the assignment to make a sculpture the show a physical phenomenon. They came up with the design of an hourglass to show “time”. The hourglass consists of a laser cut wooden frame with a plastic tube in which a ball rolls, that needs a certain time to travel. They show beautifully the inspiring power of a sculpture in the video.

How movements relate to emotions First year students Jeroen Jansen van Rosendaal, Xadya Bruxvoort, Merel Meekes, Laura Kester and Heleen Kok worked on a rolling ball sculpture that address the questions "What movement triggers a specific emotion". Within the limited time and available budget they made a nice sculpture to visualize their findings. If you want see the sculpture running, watch this video. They did a good job on this extremely difficult assignment. For me it was an learningful experience to work with them.

Rolling Ball Sculpture simulation Hanna Bruijntjes and Floris Veldhuizen worked on a RBS simulator for their graduate assignment. Hanna investigated the educational value of an RBS. She found out that seeing a functional RBS without any foreknowledge an RBS is mostly seen as an entertaining device. In the addition of some explanation the people start to see the concept and the “a-ha” effect occurs. Floris focused on programming of a RBS simulator. The goal is to simulate an RBS before it is made for two reasons. First of all, the RBS can be show to the customer before it is made and modifications can be made. Secondly, functional errors might be found and solved before implementation. A full blown RBS simulator takes man-years of work, Floris managed to make the engine of the simulator, the "Graphical User Interface" (GUI) is open for improvement. Hanna and Floris made an educational animation of the concept. Enjoy the animation. Hanna Bruijntjes came up with the saying: "You need to understand the essence before you can be creative."

Quote sculpture With quotes, one liners are meant, such as “It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop (Confusius)”. The goals is that these motivational quotes will inspire and will hopefully make you think. Tom Morsink made a prototype of a sculpture to present these quotes in an attractive way. The sculpture represents a person that shows the quotes on a screen on its chest. Movements are added to attract the attention and invite someone to read the quotes, open mindedly. The follow up will be to create a high quality sculpture with surprising movements, light and improved screen content.

Motivation sculpture: The Walk of Life The goal of this project is to inspire people by presenting motivational quotes on a screen. In front of the screen is a man that travels. The man walks and the background goes around. However, very, very slow. So slow that you won't notice it when you walk by. But when you come back a little later, you will definitely see that the sculpture has changed. The camera in front of the table takes a shot about once per minute. The small screen plays the last pictures taken much faster such that the man walks with normal pace and the background changes naturally. Sjoerd Baarslag and Samantha Galvez worked on this sculpture. Level of perfectionism is incredibly high. All drawings including the background, mechanics and programming are made manually.