Grand Illusions

Tim Goes Borromean

Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 ______________________________________________________________________ Many of Tim's toys are kept in his very large (over 200) collection of suitcases. See the video when the BBC came to visit Grand Illusions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrSYERaTq_8 However a few of his toys are too large to be stored in suitcases, and here are a few of them, which live on shelves in Tim's flat. Borromean Rings are a very old idea, with antecedents as early as the 7th Century. However the current name derives from the Italian noble family, the House of Borromeo, who date back to the 14th Century. Essentially you have three interlocking rings. The way that they interlock is such that if you cut one of the three rings, the other two will also now come apart. Wikipedia has an extensive article on this subject - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings Tim had these rings made up many years ago, when he wanted to be able to demonstrate the concept to larger groups of people. One of the rings has a join that can be undone, so it is easy to demonstrate the principle. A lovely mathematical/topological curiosity. From the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, a novel calendar that is designed to sit on your desk. The big circle has the months marked, and the silver bar has the numbers 1 - 31. Every morning when you get to your desk, you slide the grey ball to the relevant day, and once a month you move the silver ball on to the next month. It works using magnets, and the two balls are connect by a piece of elastic. Quite tactile. The next item Tim found at the Frankfurt Gift Fair in the early 1990s. This was the first time Tim came across the work of the late Jochen Valett. You can see many examples of his work here - https://valett-design.de/valett-art/index.uk.html Tim subsequently visited his studio, to see a range of his work. This item he called Toro Fluxus, and it looks like an irridescent soap bubble as it moves around the ring. This was the first version, supplied on a rigid metal hoop. Subsequently Jochen Valett came out with a version that used a piece of flexible plastic tubing with a join in it. This allow you to take the metal part of the tube and run it up and down your arm, and perform various other tricks. Japanese lenticular sheets which can even be used as optical illusion place mats. The effect they give is that the image is at different levels, and as you tilt the sheet, the background seems to shift in relation to the edge, and the central design also floats above the background. The effect sadly works better in real life than on camera! Finally, a charming automaton, which works by sand power. The back of the box is clear plastic, which is essential as you have to tilt the box in order to get the sand up into the hopper. The sand then runs down onto the paddle wheel, which gives an irregular and unpredictable series of rotations, and drives the acrobat on the other side, and powers this 'daring young man on the flying trapeze'. Sometimes he just hangs there for a few moments, and then he flips right over the top again!