CREATIVE MACHINES

We have been featured by KOLD News 13‘s Arizona Weekend blog! Thanks so much for coming down to the shop, learning about what we do, and sharing our story with the community. Here is the video they made after visiting our workshop in south Tucson and talking with Creative Machines Founder, President, and Artistic Director Joe O’Connell. ⭐️ See the full piece here → This inventive Tucson business is an engineer’s paradise #joeoconnell #community #kineticsculpture #feature #kin

The City of Tucson (where we are based) has commissioned a piece titled Wet Wheel, a 20-foot wide and 14-ft tall bike wheel that will straddle a portion of a mixed-use biking/pedestrian path like a gateway. The spokes would be absent except when a cyclist rides through the center, water jets appear in the place of spokes and give the rider an approximately one-second spray of water— a much needed and refreshing way to cool off in the intense, Arizona sun! Wet Wheel will strad

Check out this video interview with Creative Machines President Joe O’Connell on our recently installed sculpture set Body Politic. #joeoconnell #community #StainlessSteel #feature #LNX #bodypolitic #interactiveart #Sculpture #PublicArt #lenexa #CreativeMachines

2018 has been a great year for Creative Machines! We have installed our public art pieces in extraordinary cities around the country, begun sculpture and exhibit projects for awesome new clients from all over, and have strived to create fresh pieces that push the boundaries of what we have done in the past. Here are some photographic highlights from our projects that dominated 2018! PUBLIC ART Camaraderie is a series of three monumental sculptures nestled outside a veteran’s

Many of our projects involve extensive community engagement that goes beyond discussions and surveys. We recognize that people think with their hands as well as their minds and that when communities come together to help plan projects they experience a sense of camaraderie and investment in the final product. We also learn valuable lessons that we couldn’t otherwise. We have developed a kit of parts and a process for working with groups of all ages and helping people express

Growing Home was packed up and loaded onto the truck and headed towards San Diego, California! This week we have a great team of Creative Machines installers working to get the piece put into place. Stay tuned for more on the installation and to see the finished sculpture in its completed form. Want to see more on Growing Home? Check out our past blog posts: Fabrication Begins, Fabrication Update 2, Fabrication Update 3, Fabrication Update 4. #joeoconnell #community #Stainles

We had some great kids visit the shop last week from Vail School District! Here are some photos from their trip to Creative Machines. They got to play with Lissajous, Building with Light, Watercolor Wall, Ball Machines and a Tennis Ball Launcher! #fieldtrip #joeoconnell #community #communityengagement #Exhibits #interactiveart #ballmachines #vailaz #Sculpture #InteractiveExhibits #Events #vailschooldistrict #tucson #ballmachine #Arizona #CreativeMachines

Our friends at Ceramic Water Filter Solutions have set up a new point-of-use water filter factory in Nepal using the latest batch of our Portable Filter Presses. We’ve recently improved our design thanks to feedback from Michael Stubna and some simulations by our intern Rishabh Parmar. The portable filter press is a product we make available to NGOs like Potters for Peace and Ceramic Water Filter Solutions. Our press is easy to bring into foreign countries because it breaks d

We recently completed fabrication on the Bicycle Generator for Toronto Public Library! What comes next? The testing phase, of course! We invited some awesome kids down to the shop to try out the exhibit. We think they enjoyed themselves! Check out the photos from their visit below. The Bicycle Generator is a pedal-racing game having two input stations – both a foot and hand crank and two LED towers to display progress and race results. Two guests can race each other, or a sin

Our newest piece Body Politic has been installed in Lenexa, KS outside of the city’s brand new recreation center. We hope Body Politic brings joy to visitors to the rec center for many years to come. Here are some photos from the installation. Look back on the making of these sculptures in our past blog posts → New Art for City of Lenexa, Fabrication Update, Fabrication Update 2. #joeoconnell #community #StainlessSteel #kansas #bodypolitic #interactiveart #3dart #Sculpture #t

Body Politic is almost ready for installation in Lenexa, Kansas! The spheres are five and seven feet in diameter and are made from hand-hammered, laser-cut stainless steel. The large-scale, interactive sculptures feature more than 200 unique silhouettes, each conveying something different about daily life. Each visitor can investigate the figures and find a representation of themselves within the cut-out figures. Check out past blog posts HERE and HERE for more on this projec

Growing Home is in its final stages of fabrication and our team is now focusing on getting the internal LED lighting all set up within the massive sculpture. At night, our powerful point-source lights will project through the perforated stainless steel shell to activate the space around the sculpture with the projected silhouettes of the words that make up the surface. The illuminated landscape around the shell becomes a magical space for exploration at night and when viewed

Growing Home is a monumental depiction of a spiraled seashell; perfect for its new home in beautiful San Diego, California! The sculpture is going to be installed in Park 12 near Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The shell is perforated with text that tells the history of San Diego. The text is arranged in bands that spiral down the shell in the same way that a shell grows from one season to the next. The most recent dates and events in San Diego history are closest t

Camaraderie has been selected in CODAworx‘s Top 100 commissioned art and design projects of 2018! Now, we need YOUR help with votes to win People’s Choice! Cast your vote for Camaraderie in the CODAawards HERE! Voting runs until June 29. Continue your support by sharing with friends and family. #joeoconnell #community #StainlessSteel #veterans #camaraderie #interactiveart #Veteransaffairs #sitespecific #Sculpture #codaawards #designawards #codaworx #PublicArt #vote #Arizona #

We’re busy assembling a new sculpture for the City of Lenexa, Kansas titled Body Politic. The sculpture represents the communal sharing of public spaces and the importance of community. At night, the sculpture will light up with visitor-controlled LED lighting which will fill up the surrounding space with colorful silhouetted projections of the human form. Here are some shots of the large, laser-cut spheres coming together. For more on this project, check out our last post! S

We had the pleasure of hosting a field trip for some enthusiastic students from Vail Community Programs, a collective for early childhood education that provides enriching experiences for young children in the Vail, AZ community. The kids got to interact with an array of fun exhibits: watercolor walls, ball launchers, simple machines and a rolling ball sculpture. Here are some photos from their time spent exploring the shop! #fieldtrip #joeoconnell #school #community #Exhibit

At the beginning of the year, Camaraderie was installed at a brand new, state of the art, veterans clinic in San Jose, California. As the landscaping and construction came to a close and all of the finishing touches for the facility were put in place, we were able to get an official glimpse of the family of three laser-cut, stainless steel sculptures in their beautiful new home. The clinic has an ultra-modern, sustainable design and is meant to offer a “healing oasis” for pat

We’re thrilled to begin work on one of our newest projects for the City of Lenexa, Kansas’s new Civic Center. The piece titled Body Politic is a 3D exploration of sharing public spaces with others. This idea is illustrated through the use of silhouetted figures laser-cut into two large, stainless steel spheres lit brightly from within with colorful LED lighting. “Public spaces are all about looking at the silhouettes of others and judging their feelings, receptivity to contac

Join us this Thursday, March 22 from 5:30-7pm for the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona‘s Salon Series “METHOD, MADNESS: SCIENCE & ART” at Creative Machines. Click here for a map of our location! Creative Machines Founder & President Joe O’Connell, along with other distinguished community members, will discuss their own unique perspectives on the intersection of science and art. Come out for the Salon and be part of the conversation! Tickets are $20 and proceeds

“When you are in a dangerous spot, no one wants to be alone. We have to survive together.” “We never forget the people we served with. Even if we don’t talk to them, we always think of them.” “We are a family. We are serious about what we have to do. You never have to worry about someone undermining you. It is all about helping and making sure that everyone is OK.” “It’s kind of a family deal. But they are closer than family.” These are just some of the phrases included in ou