to begin

Ask your students to spend 1-2 minutes quietly examining the images and videos above. When they have had enough time to digest the artwork, it’s time to explore further through quality questions.

As you lead this discussion, accept any response! Praise your students for sharing their thoughts. Paraphrase your pupil’s answer using your own words to make sure you’re both on the same page. When you’ve come to the end of their lines of thought, ask another question!

This exercise is meant to serve as a casual discussion. Feel free to add or omit questions so that the conversation can proceed organically. Remember to use inquiry based language when forming questions ( i.e. “What could be happening?” rather than “What is happening?)

Make sure that your students have pencils and paper while they explore this artwork, so they can work out their thoughts through words, lists, and drawings!

quality questions

1. Let’s count the number of bricks on each hoop. Do those numbers remind you of anything in particular?

   1. Why do you think the artist might have chosen these numbers and not others?

2. How do these hoops seem to be working together?

   1. In our communities/world, how are things connected? 

   2. For you, is everything in the world connected? How so?

3. How are these objects similar and dissimilar to interlocking gears?

   1. Interlocking gears typically have what’s called a ‘drive:’ or one gear that is powering the movement of all the other gears. Which hoop do you feel might be the drive? Why?

4. Read Kwade’s quote below about gravity. (Define gravity, if necessary) 

“The brick machines work with each other like a gravitational system, engaged with gravity as the most important physical force, one which makes possible all life on Earth as we know it. Everything is kept together by gravity.” - Alicja Kwade

1. What do you think about the artist's words about this object? 

2. Where do you see the connections to gravity?

3. What other forms of gravity exist in our lives? What keeps everything in your life together? (Friends/family/teachers?)

the big idea

How does this object relate to the Big Idea?

TrialTurn searches for answers related to the systems that have been created to organize our realities (time and measurement) and the systems that are natural yet govern our realities (gravity).

Key Information:

1.  Four immense rings made of steel are linked together by bricks of the same size. The bricks seem to succumb to gravity, yet still obey the laws of their rotational orbit. 

   1. At this very moment, we feel ‘still.’ Nothing around us is moving and we cannot feel ourselves spinning. Yet in reality, gravity is pulling our bodies towards the ground and the earth is spinning at a rate of 1,000 miles per hour.  

2. The number of bricks on each steel ring is based on the duodecimal system (12/24/36/48), and highlights the systems of reality that we have built for ourselves, including our system for time keeping which rules our lives. 

3. Bricks are the world’s oldest known building materials. Sun and fire dried bricks have been used by every city-building civilization as far back as 7,000 BC. 

4. Each brick seems to represent an ‘equivocal unit.’ They become their own unit of mass and measure.

5. The artist mainly uses stone to represent ‘time’ in orbit, or ”compressed time.” Bricks are an interesting choice, they are a timeless building unit, they endure for centuries, and they take very little time to create.

Remember to allow your students to derive their own narratives from this artwork before revealing any information about the artist!

equal voicing opportunity

Hoop Spin Activity:

Thinking about TrialTurn, 10 Seconds, and 60 Seconds, consider all the ways that Kwade has ‘captured’ time. Using paint, paper, and the steel hoop, capture time in a new way. 

Ask the students to count off before you spin the hoop and have them count the seconds it takes for the hoop to fall. Have them also pay attention to the torgue that you used to spin the hoop and how that affected the outcome of the paint’s journey.

1. Write down the number of seconds it took for the hoop to fall next to the spin painting. 

2. Compare and contrast the times with others on the paper.

3. In what other ways can we capture time?