Blood Works

What is responsible for the colour of blood? And what are bloods of the future?
Blood Works is biologically inspired, transparent kinetic sculpture filled with blue and red liquids contained in interlocking 3D-printed structures supported by a gyroscope-like framework. The liquids move as the sculpture shifts and spins. The artwork considers the properties and qualities of blood in different species, including fluidity, coagulation, metal content and closed cardiovascular systems. The conflation of life with the constant movement of blood became a key design criteria as we developed organic 3D forms with chambers and vascular-like structures to contain moving fluids.
Some species have blue blood, such as the horseshoe crab, which is a result of the copperrich protein hemocyanin. Humans and many other animals have red blood due to hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein that transports oxygen and turns blood red. Liquids based on copper and iron oxide represent these different blood types, each partnered with a clear synthetic blood to reveal the dynamic movement of liquids in the chambers.
The blood flowing through the right and left sides of the heart do not mix, but stream and loop past each other, just as two currents in a body of water. As the heart developed before birth, in the “still water zone” between the two currents, the septum dividing the two chambers forms. The movement of the blood shapes the heart, just as the looping heart redirects the flow of blood. Rather than the twisting muscular contraction of the human heart, gimbals and gyroscopic movement make this sculpture rotate and turn.