01.03 Bicycle Ideation Sketches Assignment

Assignment Deliverables

1. Ideation Sketches

   • Evidence of 30–45 minutes of active ideation sketching.
   • Upload individual image files or a combined PDF.
   • Label files: YYYY-MM-DD Lastname Firstname Bicycle Ideation Sketches (.jpg, .png, .pdf)

2. Reference Artist Research — From Provided List

   • Select one artist or project from the reference list below.
   • Include at least 1 image, the source URL, and 2–3 sentences of observations and analysis.
   • Label file: YYYY-MM-DD Lastname Firstname Reference Artist Research (.pdf, .docx)

3. Reference Artist Research — New Reference

   • Find one relevant artist or project that is not included in the provided list.
   • Include at least 1 image, the source URL, and 2–3 sentences of observations and analysis.
   • Label file: YYYY-MM-DD Lastname Firstname New Reference Artist Research (.pdf, .docx)

Optionally, you may upload a single .zip archive containing all files. Clearly label the files inside the archive. Label the archive: YYYY-MM-DD Lastname Firstname Ideation Assignment.zip.

Assignment Overview

Develop possible directions for the Bicycle Sculpture Project through rapid ideation sketches and artist research.

Your goal is not to design or customize a conventional bicycle. Instead, treat the bicycle as a collection of structures, bearings, pivots, wheels, cranks, and other mechanical components that can be cut apart, rearranged, extended, duplicated, and combined into something unexpected.

The final sculpture does not have to be a vehicle or remain rideable, but it must incorporate bicycle components and include kinetic elements—parts that actually move.

These sketches are starting points for experimentation. They do not need to resolve every fabrication or engineering problem.

Bicycle Components as Mechanical Materials

A bicycle already contains several useful systems for producing and transferring motion:

• Wheels and hubs provide large rotating elements with built-in bearings.
• The headset provides a strong pivot that can rotate a fork or another sculptural element.
• The bottom bracket provides a durable rotating axle for cranks, pedals, arms, wheels, or other moving parts.
• Cranks and pedals can generate human-powered rotational motion.
• Chains and sprockets can transfer rotation from one location to another.
• Rims and tires can function as large pulleys or friction-drive surfaces.
• Forks and frame sections can become structural supports for moving components.

You are encouraged to misuse these mechanisms.

A headset does not have to steer. A bottom bracket does not have to drive a rear wheel. A wheel does not have to touch the ground.

Motion could be transferred through:

• Chains and sprockets
• Belts
• Ropes or cords
• Friction between wheels or rims
• Cranks
• Linkages
• Gravity
• Human interaction
• Motors or other mechanical systems

Think about what happens when one movement causes another movement.

30–45 Minute Ideation Sketching

Spend 30–45 minutes generating ideas through ideation sketching.

Do not spend the entire time making one polished drawing. Make many quick sketches and allow one idea to lead to another.

Begin with approximately 10 or more quick possibilities. Then select several promising ideas and develop them further.

Consider drawing:

• Side views
• Front views
• Top-down views
• Detail views of mechanisms
• Arrows showing movement
• Connections between moving components

Add short notes, labels, and arrows to explain how the sculpture might function. These notes will help other people understand your ideas and will help your future self remember what you intended when you return to the sketches later.

Explore

Consider questions such as:

• What rotates?
• What remains stationary?
• Where does the movement begin?
• What does the viewer touch or activate?
• How is motion transferred from one component to another?
• Could one wheel turn several other wheels?
• Could a wheel drive another wheel through friction?
• Could a belt connect two distant rotating parts?
• Could the headset become a pivot for an entire sculptural element?
• Could the bottom bracket rotate something other than a bicycle wheel?
• Could wheels rotate horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or overhead?
• What happens if bicycle components are duplicated or moved into unexpected locations?
• What happens if the frame is stretched, shortened, widened, stacked, or combined with another frame?
• What happens if the sculpture becomes extremely tall, long, wide, awkward, repetitive, unstable-looking, humorous, or absurd?
• Could the work become a stationary kinetic sculpture that barely resembles a bicycle?
• Could the work require someone to pedal, push, pull, crank, spin, or otherwise activate it?

Prioritize possibilities rather than solutions. Fabrication, testing, and prototyping will help determine what actually works.

The bicycle is your starting material and mechanical vocabulary, not the required final form.

Ideation Sketch Documentation

Document all of your sketches.

Sketches may be scanned or photographed, but the final documentation should clearly show the drawings rather than the surrounding environment.

When photographing sketches:

• Place the paper on a flat surface.
• Use bright, even lighting.
• Avoid shadows across the page.
• Hold the camera directly above and parallel to the paper.
• Fill the image frame with the page.
• Keep the entire drawing in focus.
• Crop out unnecessary background.
• Correct rotation and perspective if necessary.
• Adjust exposure so the paper appears light and the drawing remains clearly visible.

A phone camera is sufficient when used carefully.

Combine multiple pages into a clearly organized PDF or submit clean individual images.

Reference Gathering Process

Artist research should help you discover possibilities for movement, structure, interaction, fabrication, and transformation.

Reference 1 — From the Provided List

Select at least one artist or project from the references below.

Include:

• At least 1 image

• The URL where the image or project information was found

• 2–3 sentences describing:

  • What interests you about the work
  • How movement or mechanical systems are used
  • What you might learn from or adapt from the work for your own project

Reference 2 — Find Your Own

Find one artist, project, maker, machine, vehicle, kinetic sculpture, or other relevant reference that is not included in the list below.

Include:

• At least 1 image
• The source URL
• 2–3 sentences explaining why the reference is useful to your project

The reference does not need to use bicycles. A project involving unusual motion, bearings, linkages, pulleys, belts, chains, human interaction, or mechanical transformation may be equally useful.

Artist + Project References

These references approach bicycles and kinetic sculpture in very different ways. Some retain the bicycle as a human-powered machine, while others use bicycle wheels, bearings, chains, frames, or mechanical components as raw material for sculpture.

When looking at these references, do not concentrate only on what the finished sculpture looks like. Pay attention to how motion is produced and transferred through wheels, axles, bearings, belts, chains, pulleys, cranks, friction, gravity, motors, and the human body.

1. Art Bike Relief at Burning Man Part 1   — Part 2   — Part 3   — Three-part series by Cécile Ravaux about art bikes at Burning Man.

2. Koichiro Azuma   — Large interactive sculptures constructed from discarded bicycles and fabricated steel.

3. Rat Rod Bikes Forum   — Makers sharing knowledge about radically modified and scratch-built bicycle frames.

4. Peter Hudson / Hudzo Design   — Human-powered bicycles drive the mechanical rotation and stroboscopic lighting of large-scale sculptures.

5. Jean Tinguely   — Kinetic machines built from wheels, belts, motors, scrap metal, and found mechanisms.

6. Paul Elkins   — Experimental human-powered tricycles and unusual bicycle-based constructions.

7. Krank-Boom-Clank   — Artist collective that created the Hennepin Crawler. See also making-of photos   .

8. Ai Weiwei — Forever Bicycles   — Repetition of bicycle forms transforms a familiar functional object into large-scale sculpture and installation.

9. Diane Landry   — Motorized installations incorporating bicycle wheels, pulleys, timing belts, bearings, light, and other materials.

10. Nemo Gould   — Kinetic found-object machines useful for studying mechanisms, cranks, linkages, and imaginative reuse.

11. Bike Kill 2023   — Documentation of an alternative bicycle festival featuring experimental and radically modified bicycles.

12. Mark Grieve — Cyclisk   — Co-creator of Cyclisk, a monumental sculpture made from hundreds of discarded bicycles.

13. Ilana Spector — Cyclisk   — Co-creator and fabricator of Cyclisk.

14. Cyclecide Bike Rodeo   — Artist collective transforming junk bicycles into tall bikes, unusual vehicles, kinetic sculptures, and pedal-powered carnival rides.

15. Chris Cole Designs   — Kinetic sculptor who transforms salvaged bicycle and mechanical parts into moving creatures and machines.

16. SCUL — Bicycle Chopper Gang   — Construction guides and documentation of radically modified bicycles.

17. Juan Martinez   — Articulated, rideable animal sculptures fabricated from bicycle components and metal.

18. Melissa Daubert   — Interactive kinetic sculpture incorporating bicycle parts, cranks, wheels, and audience activation.

19. Tall Bike Tour   — Documentation of traveling and building with a radically altered tall bicycle.

20. Dr. ARod   — Kinetic sculptures using bicycle wheels and components as rotating systems.

21. Patricia Vader   — Kinetic and public sculptures incorporating bicycle wheels and hubs.

22. Jake Beckman — RotaFlora   — A large-scale kinetic sculpture constructed from bicycle wheels.

23. Cindy Chinn   — Sculptures made from recycled bicycle tires, wheels, pedals, and other components, including kinetic works activated by pedals.

24. OogieMustBoogie — Build a Kinetic Sculpture   — Bicycle-based kinetic sculpture project using a modified tricycle structure.

25. Rachel Dorn   — Combines discarded bicycle components with ceramic and mixed-media sculpture.

26. David Julian — Burning Man Photography   — Photographer whose Burning Man documentation includes unusual bicycles and human-powered constructions.

27. Keith Bryant   — Combines bicycle components, sprockets, wood, glass, and found objects into mixed-media sculpture.

28. Daria Wendland   — Large installations constructed from salvaged bicycle wheels.

29. Norman Tuck — Lariat Chain   — Interactive kinetic sculpture using bicycle wheels, motors, chains, and deceptively simple mechanical systems.

30. Bikes of Burning Man   — Collection of unusual and radically modified bicycles at Burning Man.

More Artists to explore.

Grading Rubric