On our second “Where is the Math and Science in Art?” meetup at the SF Moma, we went by the Calder gallery and one of us pointed out that the calder mobile is on the cover of that famous MIT algorithms textbook. Context, Context, context! Now I can’t unsee it!
After some further digging, we discovered that Calder had studied Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute after his parents pressured him not to become an artist. Really neat stuff that informed our view of the work!
Calder, Hackerspace Hacker
We’re just starting to get a look at Calder’s studio. He was a true hacker! IT turns out that Calder longed to be an artist in his youth, but pressure from his family had him go to a nice career early on as a mechanical engineer with a successful college degree from Stevens Institute in New Jersey.
Despite his early years as an engineer, he doggedly pursed an art career and introduced kinetic art to the mainstream art world. Looking over articles, it’s clear that the dude was a true hacker, obsessed with creating moving sculptures, no doubt influenced by his cool engineering background.
Check out that art studio! He’d be at home in SudoRoom.
Hope we can feature him more in the upcoming weeks…
