A few things in the mix this time as I figured out my response to The Kick-About No.155 (“Movers and Shakers”). For those readers not familiar with UK television, there was a long-running programme on the BBC called Tomorrow’s World, which focused on future technology and science. I found myself thinking about how a low-budget programme like that might go about demonstrating the behaviour of molecules, electrons, or aggressive pathogens, imagining that I was in charge of producing the models for a live demonstration.
I was also thinking about those oversized models of molecules I’d seen at school and in books — tactile constructions of coloured balls and spokes. And then there are those toys you see stuck on car dashboards — nodding dogs, hula girls, swaying flowers — set moving and shaking at the slightest vibration.
With all of that in mind, I set about making a series of molecules, pathogens, neutrons, electrons, quarks — whatever — built from balls of air-drying clay and cocktail sticks. Once painted, I glued them to some compression springs and then set them jouncing around in front of the camera. I was mostly thinking about water molecules moving from ice to liquid to vapour, so turning these solid shapes into ‘smoke’ via a few seconds of long exposure.
The title Vis Viva (Latin for “living force”) refers to early ideas about energy and motion — the sense of something active and dynamic within matter.
Red's Kingdom 
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