Motion artist Derek Hugger recently completed this awesomely intricate kinetic sculpture entitled Colibri that mimics the motion of a hummingbird in flight. It’s made of over 400 precisely machined wooden gears, screws, and wooden pieces that form the wings, tail feathers, and the flower from which the bird is feeding.
“Every element of motion has been completely mechanized, from the beating wings to the flaring tail. Intricate systems of linkages and cams bring the sculpture to life with a continuous flow of meticulously timed articulations. As each mechanism has been linked to the next, Colibri cycles through its complete range of motions by the simple turn of a crank. This project took me roughly 700 hours and contains about 400 parts.”
