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Works register

The Quiet Machine

Folded aluminium arm and sprung contact surface
Object / YearW–007 / 2023
LocationLisbon, PT
ClassificationMechanical sculpture

Blued steel turning slowly toward no particular purpose.

A blued steel mechanism in a pool of cool light

A machine that performs one precise movement with no useful outcome.

A reduction drive turns a folded aluminium arm once every forty-three minutes. Its endpoint presses lightly against a sprung steel surface, releases it, and begins again.

The movement is deliberately over-engineered. Backlash, vibration and sound were treated as sculptural materials until the remaining action felt inevitable rather than automated.

  • F–01One slow cycle
  • F–02Runs close to silent
  • F–03Service access through the rear datum plate
Next object / W–043Observation Tower