Public Exhibitions of Kinetic Art

I made my first television appearance with my kinetic art on June 28th, 2002. I appeared on a local public television show, Almanac , which is a popular news and current-events show in the Twin Cities. There are two video clips, in RealVideo format, of my appearance which includes a special kinetic gadget made with the Twin Cities Public Televison logo.

The first clip shows me demonstrating a couple of simple techniques with the host, J.G. Preston.

The second clip has the video of my Foray into Recreational Kinematics With Egregious Use of the TPT Logo #1.

A video of my kinetic gadgets appeared on the Minneapolis cable-access show, Bonedoggled, shown several times during the winter of 2002-3.

I took part in the Five Minutes of Fame webcast offered by mnartists.org on Thursday, December 5th, and Friday, December 6th, 2002.

I took part in the 2003 Saint Paul Art Crawl on Friday, April 25th, from 6 to 10 PM, and on Saturday, April 26th, from 1 to 6 PM. It was a large exhibition of hundreds of local artists in the Lowertown and Downtown areas of Saint Paul. For more information, check out the official homepage of the Art Crawl.

Click on the thumbnail image below to see some posters I designed for the Art Crawl and an image of my display.

"Art That's Really Moving: The Kinetic Gadgets of Tim Fort"


I exhibited my kinetic gadgets at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from August 1st to September 21st, 2003! The public response was very warm and positive and the show was a smashing success! Go here to see the MIA's webpage.

I was interviewed by Karl Gehrke for the July 31st edition of Backstage Pass, an arts-oriented show on local classical radio station WCAL 89.3 FM.

The local television station, WCCO Channel 4, featured an interview of me with reporter Ed Heil and the performance of my gadget, Improvisational Foray into the Realm of Recreational Kinematics with Imp and Plastic Pumpkin #1, live on their morning newscast on Tuesday, August 5th.

A review of mine and Gerald Smith's exhibition was featured in the August 15th edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

A brief interview with me was featured on Minnesota Public Radio's Word of Mouth arts program on Friday, August 29th.

A review about my exhibition by Patricia Briggs, Moving Art That You Can't Leave Alone: Tim Fort and Gerald Smith at MAEP, appeared in the mnartists.org web page in early September.

On the 11th of September, Gerald Smith and I took part in a 'Trialogue' with local art critics Glenn Gordon and Michael Fallon.

Click on the thumbnail image below to see images from my exhibition and a larger version of the publicity picture I created, or go here to see short video clips of my MIA gadgets in action.

I created my biggest gadget ever on January 26, 2004! It was for a video for the Minnesota Children's Museum and received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Go here to see pictures of the gadget.

My homemade commercial, Chain Reaction, was part of the "All Things Electoral" exhibtion at Susan Hensel Design from September 10th to October 29th, 2004. My kinetic art was mentioned in an interview on Art Matters on KFAI Fresh Air Radio. Go here to see the video!

In November of 2004, I created Aesthetic Kinetic Device with Plastic Flowers and Director’s Chair Created Under the Auspices of Town Square Television #1 for Town Square Television, a local cable-access studio. The video, as well as an interview with Yours Truly, were part of the Insight 7 current-events program. Go here to see pictures of the aftermath!

I created a gadget for the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Alexandra Rozenman on February 4th, 2005. It was at the AZ Gallery in Lowertown, Saint Paul, and was greeted with enthusiastic applause. Go here to check out the video of the gadget!

I took part in an exhibition called interact/react with ten other artists at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in downtown Saint Paul from April 9th to July 10th, 2005. Check out a video of the opening-night gadget or pictures of two of the gadgets. You can also check out the MMAA's website or read an article on the exhibition by Glenn Gordon. There's also an article on the exhibition in the local alternative newspaper, City Pages.

I participated in an artistic retreat during August 2005 as part of a Jerome Fellowship. I spent the entire month in New York Mills creating gadgets for a video project at the Regional Cultural Center.

My New York Mills project video was featured on Minnesota Stories, a popular video blog, on September 18th and 19th, 2006. On September 23rd, my video was featured on Yahoo! and received hundreds of thousands of downloads.

On July 27th, 2007, I set an unofficial world record by detonating a stick bomb made with 1940 tongue depressors in the city of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. You can see the video of it here .

In the Spring of 2007, I spent several days in Ghent, Belgium, working with the production company Dr. Film on an advertisement for a cell-phone company. We created a large domino chain working its way through a building with several cool tricks along the way. It was easily the coolest thing I ever did that involved a giant anthropomorphic thumb speaking Flemish. Het is teveel pret!

In December of 2007, I was awarded an Artist Initiative Grant by the Minnesota State Arts Board . I used the money to buy improved video equipment, including a high-speed camera, and pay for a studio space.

In March, 2008, I created four gadgets at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the Exhibitor 2008 trade show. The show was an *ahem* smashing success, and the audiences loved my gadgets. During the exhibition, I was interviewed by Jason Davis, the host of local television station KSTP's popular news show, On the Road. You can see pictures of the show here. This episode of On the Road was devoted to weird and wacky artists, and was aired on Sunday, April 27th, 2008. Whoo, hoo!

At the beginning of July, 2008, I flew out to Seattle to work with the advertising agency Wexley School for Girls. I set up dominoes and other gadgets in the production of a video to be used in a public karaoke display for Microsoft's (RED) program. You can see the video and read about my experiences here.

In April of 2009, I participated in the Saint Paul Art Crawl, creating three large gadgets for the exhibition.

In July of 2009, I was notified that my video, Edifice Wrecks, was chosen by IFP Minnesota for inclusion in the 2009 MNTV Showcase to be shown on Twin Cities Public Television in December.

On November 6th of 2009, I taught a class on the art of making stick bombs at Studio Bricolage in Minneapolis. It was a real blast!

The Sunday edition of the Pioneer Press newspaper in Saint Paul (11/21/09) ran a large feature article on my kinetic art, including a video of my latest world-record stick bomb.

On November 22nd, 2009, I taught a class on 'Stick-Bomb Physics' at the Science Museum of Minnesota, teaching children the art of stick-bomb making. Whoo, hoo!

My kinetic-art video, Edifice Wrecks, was shown on Twin Cities Public Television, channel 2, on December 27th, 2009 at 10 PM.

On March 11, 2010, my 2250-stick stick bomb detonated on November 12, 2009 was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as a new world record. Whoo, hoo!

On June 4th, 2010, I detonated a new world-record stick bomb in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as part of Lowertown's First Friday event. This xyloexplosive device was made out of 3200 tongue depressors and a videographer from WCCO Channel 4 was present. It's more fun than you can shake a stick at!

At around 1:30 PM on June 20th, 2010, I set off my latest world-record stick bomb in the Science Museum of Minnesota near the entrance to the exhibits. The new world record is an amazing 3,864 sticks! The audience loved it and you can see a Twitpic of the bomb in the middle of detonation here. The video of this event was broadcast on KARE-11's evening news program. I am claiming a new official Guinness World Record. You can see pictures of the bomb before detonation.

On July 2nd, 2010, National Public Radio announced that my video, Frenetic Kinetics!, was selected as one of the top three winners of the NPR-Corcoran Muybridge Contest. It was a national contest for art created in the style of early movie pioneer Eadweard Muybridge. You can see the contest results or listen to the announcement on "All Things Considered" at NPR's website. It's more fun than a zoopraxiscope!

On July 10th, 2010, I set off a gadget at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. as part of an exhibition on movie pioneer Eadweard Muybridge. As part of the gadget, I had eight Muybridgeoscopes with animations taken from Muybridge's motion studies. Whoo, hoo!

In July of 2010, I was notified that my video, Frenetic Kinetics!, was chosen by IFP Minnesota for inclusion in the 2010 MNTV Showcase to be shown on Twin Cities Public Television in December.

On July 29th, 2010, the 3864-stick stick bomb I detonated at the Science Museum of Minnesota on June 20th was accepted as an official Guinness World Record!

On October 8th, 2010, I set a new world record for largest stick bomb. It contained exactly 4,242 sticks and was detonated as part of the Saint Paul Art Crawl. You can see the video here. Whoo, hoo!

During the Spring and Summer of 2011, I was a contestant on America's Got Talent on NBC. I made it all the way to 13th place, out of 25,000 auditions, and barely missed out on making the Top Ten. Here's a link to one of my Facebook fan pages. I made five appearances on the show. My first appearance at the Minneapolis audition featured a stick bomb and my second appearance in Las Vegas featured a clever-lever gadget. My Quarter-Final attempt at a world-record stick bomb was a disaster. I did make a successful comeback during the Wild Card round with this herringbone chain which got thunderous applause from the audience and Piers Morgan even genuflected before me and proclaimed that I was truly the King. For my Semi-Final gadget, I went with a world-record clever-lever gadget that shot ping-pong balls and candy over much of the audience, even hitting Howie Mandel in the face with a ping-pong ball. (Yes, he was practicing 'safe sticks' by wearing safety goggles.) You can also check out the official Kinetic King page on NBC's website here. Whoo, hoo!

On October 7th, 2011, I attempted a world-record stick bomb with 6,767 sticks as part of the Saint Paul Art Crawl. That attempt failed as the cobra weave locked up several times. On October 18th, I made another attempt which was successful, detonating a colossal stick-bomb field with 6,818 sticks in it. You can view both attempts on my Videos page. It's a real blast!

Return to the main Kinetic Art Page.