Gebändigte Bändigung

While experimenting and repairing a roll metre, I came across the inner workings. The constant force spring, which ensures the retraction of the metre tape, jumped out at me when I opened it. The unruly character of the tape often made me despair when unrolling and holding it. This gave rise to the theme of taming the essence of this material; through a rigid, mechanical shape consisting of perforated sheet angles and a running wheel.

Constantly, almost monotonously, the abstracted figure tries to bring the impetuous metal band under control. The wheel slips repeatedly as it cannot withstand the pulling force. Three sides are tamed, but one cannot be controlled. The figure falls victim to its target.

The trial of strength between these parties is driven by a windscreen wiper motor. The basic theme of this kinetic sculpture is also the visualisation of the balancing of forces of both interacting components; metal band and abstracted figure.