Shady Art Installation Rigging

gafftaper

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Took a walk through a sculpture park today and saw this suspended piece titled "Flying Fish".
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The rigging was rather interesting.
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I hate rigging to trees. Trees don’t have any decent anchor points and chokes like to slip on the bark.
 
I hate rigging to trees. Trees don’t have any decent anchor points and chokes like to slip on the bark.
There was another item hung in a tree nearby that used a couple of wraps of webbing around the tree pulled together with a carabiner which connected to the aircraft cable. Yeah it'll need to be replaced regularly due to weathering, but it was a nice clean connection.
 
It’s clear they don’t mind screwing into the tree. Why not just run a metal strap around it and do it proper? That looks scary
 
Unfortunately, artists tend to do this sort of thing without giving material weathering and safety much consideration, and they don't often consult rigging or structural professionals when they should. College art curriculum should include discussion of engineering, safety and liability.

My church had a large sculpture affixed high on the facade over the main entrance. It was made out of styrofoam, coated in Pleko stucco, looking like carved sandstone. The styro was glued to a plywood backing, and attached to the building using all-thread. The problem was the plywood got soft after weathering about 20 years, and there were too few all-threads, and small, flat washers sandwiching the plywood. A wind storm tore the whole thing off the building. I was on the committee that selected the art. Had I known how flimsy the installation was, I would have brought in a structural engineer to advise us. The artist was a college professor, with a long career doing church architectural art. He really should have known better.
 
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How do you walk away from that and think, "Yeah, I did a great job! I feel really good about the way that looks."?

Even visually that wire looks like a mess.
Clearly your artistic vision is sadly lacking; the quantity and precise positioning / angularity of the wires contributes greatly to its artistic integrity & value.
Toodleoo!
Ron ( The Non Artiste ) Hebbard
 
It’s clear they don’t mind screwing into the tree. Why not just run a metal strap around it and do it proper? That looks scary
Trees grow outward. A strap (or cable, or chain) around the tree will tend to girdle it, and cause a lot of damage to the tree. Even once the tree grows around it, there's a significant weak spot there due to bark inclusion in the wood. Of course, a loose strap has its own problems, such as abrading the tree when it moves. Bolts and screws into (or through) the tree really are a better plan if properly done. I'm not for a moment suggesting that this installation was properly done, of course.

I have a lovely maple tree in my front yard that, at some time well before I bought the house, had an attempt made to strengthen a crotch by attaching a chain around and between the two trunks that fork off. That chain is now thoroughly embedded in the trunks. Before too long I really should have an arborist come by and trim away a good bit of the top of the tree so that it won't be likely to break there in a storm and end up on (or through) my roof.
 
The archtectural lighting industry often works with arborists and engineers to design proper attachment points to specific types of trees.
This is common in themed entertaiment and it requires regular inspection and service. And, it is always considered a last resort solution.
 
Okay, so, here's the crazy thing: the install was doing great until the eye screws and improper wire rope clips were introduced. If wrapping a tree that size with rope of that size, you have a tensionless hitch. As long as the object is a minimum of 4 times larger than the rope, you lose no strength and the friction alone holds everything in place. Sure, put an eye in the dead end to capture the working end as a "just in case". But again, that's if you're using synthetic or other types of woven, climbing/hauling style ropes. It makes for a great climbing anchor, even- especially in industrial applications.

Does it work as well with wire rope? Maybe not. But for sure it won't here because of the introduction of the eye screws and improperly applied wire rope clips. All that friction, lost to eternity..... (le sigh).

So yeah, whatcha got here now is a big ol' mess full of problems. Enjoy the beauty of art and nature, @gafftaper ...but uhm...."heads!"
 
Okay, so, here's the crazy thing: the install was doing great until the eye screws and improper wire rope clips were introduced. If wrapping a tree that size with rope of that size, you have a tensionless hitch. As long as the object is a minimum of 4 times larger than the rope, you lose no strength and the friction alone holds everything in place. Sure, put an eye in the dead end to capture the working end as a "just in case". But again, that's if you're using synthetic or other types of woven, climbing/hauling style ropes. It makes for a great climbing anchor, even- especially in industrial applications.

Does it work as well with wire rope? Maybe not. But for sure it won't here because of the introduction of the eye screws and improperly applied wire rope clips. All that friction, lost to eternity..... (le sigh).

So yeah, whatcha got here now is a big ol' mess full of problems. Enjoy the beauty of art and nature, @gafftaper ...but uhm...."heads!"
Yeah, my eye was drawn to the rigging initially due to the crazy mess of cable wrapped around the tree, my Jedi Master College TD always said "Neatness counts. If it isn't neat you are probably doing something wrong."
 
So I emailed the non-profit organization that sponsors the art installation and encouraged them to call the Local hall and get help hiring an ETCP rigger to come out and inspect things and fix them. I also suggested that they send some high quality close up pictures to that person so that they can bring the appropriate gear with them... the installation is a couple of hours outside of town.

They took my message serious and said they will do just that. So hopefully they will.
 
Yeah he said it about everything, carpentry, cleaning the shop, putting away tools, spackle, rigging, routing cables, tying cables on a batten... "Neatness Counts!"
I get pretty anal retentive about formatting Word docs and how I lay out my drawings, to the chagrin of others occasionally.

The gist of it though that if someone is lax and doesn't pay much attention to detail about something obvious and small -- it begs the question, "What else will they be careless and inattentive about when I pay them to perform services?"
 

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