Mechanics and actuation

Nick often works together with Daniël de Bruin on his projects. This hybrid artist and designer is already credited with many special mechanical constructions that are viewed by tens of thousands of people on social media. Driven by his own ideas and reflections, he creates personal designs and takes on assignments for the entertainment and theatre world. “Daniël is someone who understands my artistic approach like no other but is also able to translate it into effective technology,” explains Nick.

COCON required a solid plan. Daniël: “When working on previous projects, we would often find that the motors had their limits. Their power, speed, torque, precision, dynamic response, flexibility, etc. were often just not sufficient. For COCON, that had to be different. The arms would need to be working together seamlessly, be absolutely precise as well as reliable – especially because there would be eight people playing the cello underneath the structure. And the absolute accuracy was needed to synchronise the movements of the eight elements and to create the required light effects, too. These are produced by lasers that are positioned a few metres away from the stage. The beams they transmit are received and reflected by small mirrors in the head of the arm. A small deviation in the position of the mirror caused by an imprecise rotation of the head would, at a larger distance, lead to the laser beams completely missing the mirrors and the desired light effect would fail.”