“TRAZOW :: math > metal > moiré” as a title fits the challenging and ambiguous nature of the wind-powered sculpture project this 28:30 documentary chronicles. With the girth of a motorhome, the assemblage of steel and synthetics would occupy space outside the Niagara Power Project Visitors Center in Lewiston, New York. The plan was for breeze off the escarpment to keep TRAZOW’s hooped components in hypnotic, planetary motion. A bonus feature of the apparatus, named loosely after a certain famous composer, was the rotating, opposing discs to produce moiré patterns as tall as its onlookers.

The completed TRAZOW object was among the dozens of sculptures and “transformed automobiles” in Art on Wheels™ Buffalo Niagara, running from May through October, 2003. The widescreen video covers everything from the genesis of the project to its construction and installation. The chewy center of the program, though, has to be the conversations and commentary by the duo behind TRAZOW: Buffalo State College staffers Robert Dray and Stephen F. Saracino. How they crossed paths and applied their respective mechanical and metalsmithing expertise to the creative process shows local ingenuity at its witty best.

The fast paced documentary features composited photos, on-location digital video, and interviews with principals and support staff. The result is a modern, authentic, memorable take in the way it showcases cooperation among the thinkers, artisans and local businesses that made TRAZOW a reality.

This program was made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts, Niagara Arts Council, and Lockport Community Television.

Where most independent producers under the curve might balk at taking on a yearlong process that may not net much, my vision fed on the unscripted, daily blocks of progress my subjects churned out of gears, steel and sheer imagination as their kinetic art “object” came to.

Picture the creative duo in the viewfinder every day, as equal parts DaVinci, Wright Brothers, and “Car Talk” . . . all to the din of heavily amped blues and spot welders. Even in their first collaboration, these design studio gurus—longtime college staffers with keys to every imaginable space in the building—made it a breeze to gel my show around their talents.

The “object” took its final shape through the spring. That was also when the volume of DV footage and digital photos I had acquired made any question over compositing every scene a non-issue. I chose multiple, animated screen objects to deliver the story within the half-hour limit of the seed grant.

The more I refined the production, tacking on accounts of additional helpers and embellishments like the cyclical soundtrack, the more I saw the video mimic the essence of TRAZOW—in a word, stochastic. No repeat viewings of the kinetic sculpture or the video will yield the same two views.

The thrill of having TRAZOW itself drive the form of my work was nothing minor . . . neither was the effort to complete either one. Both did premiere, though, to my honored wish that the audiences would have to work just as hard holding back curiosity.

—John P. Weiksnar
Producer/Director, “TRAZOW :: math > metal > moiré”

This program was made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts, Niagara Arts Council, and Lockport Community Television.