I found this to be very interesting. I related this kinetic structure, Scott Weaver's "rolling through the Bay" to Chris Burden's "Metropoliss II" exhibited at the LACMA. You can watch the video of the work in action from the Colossal site. Both complex installations featured a type of motion set by the audience in setting of a major city in California. The major difference is the materials, time frame it was built within, and the vulnerability of the structure. I guess it was to expose how busy and concentrated the cities are and they succeeded with building compact versions of these highly saturated city lifestyles. The motion of the ball and mini automobiles are the tour guides that takes the viewer on a tour through the city and details play such an important part in recognizing certain monuments and buildings.
Even though the Metropolis II is set in motion by machine, it gives more of a synthetic feeling and modern edge while Scott's structure is set into motion by manual labor with his hand constantly moving and nudging the tennis balls through, allowing the audience to be more intimate and up close to the art work. They can sense every detail of work and toothpick that has gone into building the city, which comes with a huge feeling of accomplishment for Scott because he spent 35 years on building it! It's incredible to see a life long project that is still in action and up for revisions even today. Instead of hearing hundreds of continuous flow of loud, fast cars speeding through 18 roadways, it was a quite different to hear the artist narrate the few golf-balls trail through the city with loads of historical background and humorous stories with the intention to make us feel as though San Francisco is still a busy city. Same intentions with different approaches that attract the same viewers.
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