ATTILA CSÖRGŐ – DIE CASTING MACHINE

Mobile sculpture, 2007

The Die Casting Machine repeats a single, “chance” roll of a dice periodically. The die travels, in slow motion, the same route again and again, always landing on the same face. Chance, which is part of a game of dice, is now suspended, the result being always the same.

From the perspective of kinetics, the result of a game of dice is the sum of the final states of motion sequences, though we do not ten to give much thought to this. When we say “it was a good roll,” we mean a state of rest which gives a favourable value. The idea of the “good roll” does not concern the object itself, as cast, spinning in space, describing loops, before the state of rest. For what would constitute a “good” trajectory? How many times should the die touch the table, which way should it turn?

The Die Casting Machine explores the route of the die. The route which the die travels in about one and a half seconds needed to be mapped, and divided into sub-trajectories, in this case five in num­ber. Through studying the sub-trajectories, it became possible to devise those movements that together give out the original route.

The final construct uses only analogue devices, and relies on the fine-tuned cooperation of a great many drives. The table, which ori­ginally merely interrupts the trajectory, now becomes the home of propelling forces. Underneath slide, spin and move up and down those parts that give out a single route. This is a sculpture of the die's trajectory.

Text: Attila Csörgő