Mike Hinge and his participation with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)

At last, I can say we have something on Onyxcube about Mike's sculptural work! It is known (through these pages) that after Mike's death most, if not all of his sculptures were junked and up until now I have not been able to track down any documented work. That is until recently when Alex Jay sent me a selection of scans from the exhibition catalogue  "Some More Beginnings" organised by  "Experiments in Art and Technology" (E.A.T.). The exhibition took place at the Brooklyn Museum in 1968, with the public viewing from November the 26th to January the 5th 1969. Mike exhibited a kinetic light sculpture titled, "2000 Light years from home". The title is borrowed from The Rolling Stones, 1967 song of the same name. A cool indicator of Mike's appreciation for music and this particular Space Rock classic! The exhibition catalogue's original size is 27 x 42 cm.

The photograph of Mike's work looks incredible and the following descriptions from catalogue are intriguing "Mike Hinge New Zealander: Born 0000. 2,000 Light years from home 1968. Aluminium, synchronous motors, cam timers, wood, electric lights, 24"x24"x14" Category: C:1.2".  

And "The piece consists of a number of perforated discs rotated by synchronous motors. The major discs are 13 1/2" in diameter spaced 1 1/2" apart and are powered by 10 different motors of various slow speeds. The second set of discs is mounted below as a reflector for the first set. The discs are illuminated from below by coloured thermal flashing D-26 bulbs mounted on a 2" square with holes punched for wiring and ventilation: 20 surrounding discs are rotated by 20 motors and are sequentially illuminated by colored bulbs on a 12-hour cycle". 

Once again, thank you very much to Alex for his contributions. 

Front Cover

Further information about E.A.T. can be found on these web pages:

http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=237

http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/doc.php?NumEnregDoc=d00001940

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_Art_and_Technology

Mike Hinge 006

The Mike Hinge Enterprise - I like to imagine that Mike Hinge was an eccentric, maverick entrepreneur dreaming up new projects and getting fired up with enthusiasm and working prolifically. I don't have much evidence that he was a driving ambitious entrepreneur but I believe that like most artist he wanted his work to be more widely known and he was indeed prolific in his work producing hundreds of illustrations and paintings. Through out his life he believed that artists should be paid well for their work and campaigned for such.

With Hinge's entrepreneur hat on he produced a collection of posters, possibly t-shirts, at least one fanzine and joined an art group and had various exhibitions of his work and of course had the legendary book the "The Mike Hinge Experience" that he produced with Jim Steranko's publishing company Supergraphics.

I think that there are certainly T-Shirts, Art Shows, Posters, Fanzines that Mike Hinge would have initiated and produced that I do not know about. The search continues...

Fanzine - The only fanzine I know of, at this time, that Hinge produced, illustrated and wrote is called "Time" I have one copy and i believe that it was produced on or around July 1954 in New Zealand. It has writings including short stories and illustrations. Curiously he has signed one illustration as Michael B Hinge but the rest (6 more) are signed as Mikeo.

Posters - "Plug Into The Mike Hinge Electric Poster Trip". I only know of 7 posters that were produced and I have 3 of them. The three that i have come up quite regularly on ebay at the moment and are currently cheap as micro chips, get them if you haven't already! The Three that I have are "Area 5 Viewscreen", "Deck 4 Zero" & "Onyx Cube", i'd love to find the other 4 if anyone can help. Below is an advert advertising the posters from Algol magazine Summer 1975.

Art Shows - Hinge was involved with an artist group called "E. A. T." (Experiments in Art & Technology or... Engineers, Artists and Technology) the group was formed by engineers and artists alike including Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman...I know very little about this group but I know that they had shows and Mike Hinge was involved and that Hinge also produced some electronic sculpture. I'd love to acquire more information on this arts group and to be able to acquire the catalogues and Hinges work from the shows.

T-Shirts - I have never seen a Hinge T-Shirt and at this moment where vintage T-shirts are all the fashion, i imagine that such an item would be extremely popular. Although I haven't seen a T-shirt I do have a design of one and it's called "Atom Heart Mother #2" and it is similar to an image which appears in the "Mike Hinge Experience" and the front cover of "Amazing Science Fiction" Dec/74. "Parsec T-shirts", wow! I'd love to see the other designs, this is the only one i have.

Hinge T-Shirt Design, "Atom Heart Mother #2", 3 ink colours on white paper. Date unknown. Approximately 40x70cm. unsigned.