This weekend, the city of Lowell will be turned into a stage for art … on wheels. The eighth annual Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race is taking over, where fifteen teams of artists, engineers, students and tinkerers will pedal, paddle and push their human-powered sculptures over a 10k route.
These one-of-a-kind sculptures, built from recycled materials, come from across New England to participate, and the rules are just as quirky as the vehicles themselves. This is not your typical race.
Event producer Bianca Mauro and race director Michael Roundy joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about the race. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: I’m just psyched to talk about this because it’s so much fun, and we love art and science on this show — anything that combines them just makes us happy.
For people who don’t know what this is about, who have never been or seen pictures, Bianca, start off for us. Tell us what exactly a kinetic sculpture race is.
Bianca Mauro: You did a pretty good job explaining it right from the start, and we appreciate that! Thanks for doing your homework, Arun.
For most people, when they hear the words “kinetic sculpture race,” they have pretty much no idea what to think. The way we like to describe it to people, first and foremost, is adults having fun so that we can show younger people that it’s still cool to grow up.
The roots of kinetic sculpture racing began with two retired engineers, souping up their kids’ tricycles and starting races in a cul-de-sac in California in 1969. What it’s turned into since then is all manner of students and adults, people of all ages, getting together to solve a problem — several problems — of an obstacle course that race organizers like us build for them to navigate.
They build human-powered machines out of recycled materials, and then they need to forage through cobblestones, a mud pit and even the Merrimack River.
Rath: Michael, is that what makes it so exciting? Because there are other kinetic vehicle races like this, I’ve seen pictures of them, but Lowell seems cooler somehow. Why is it so special?
Michael Roundy: I think a lot of these races happen in cities that are actually pretty cool in general. [There are] lots of artists and engineers and people who love to cross the sciences and art together.
But Lowell is a special kind of one where not only do we have a giant artist population here, but the start of the city was as an industrial city. There are gears all over the mills here in Lowell, and the strength, I would say, is in lots of open, creative minds that are here in Lowell that help to kind of power this race.
Rath: We are a great area for artists, scientists and engineers.
Roundy: Absolutely.
Rath: I mean, if you look at the variety of vehicles, and it’s hard to imagine limits, but there are rules in a sense. Could you tell us about the rules and how the awards work?
Roundy: You know, a lot of [the rules] are geared toward making sure that everybody’s safe. But the number one rule is that everybody — no matter whether you’re a judge, a marshal or by happenstance a person that’s on the street — that we all have fun.
Some of the other rules are things like, you know, no feet on the ground when you’re going through the mud, as you’re coming out of the water or anywhere else throughout the race. And also, making sure you have a stuffed animal on board. Just in case your sculpture breaks down, you have something to console you on the side of the road.
Rath: Those are good rules. Bianca?
Mauro: Personally, I have some favorite rules. I really enjoy the rules — obviously because, well, safety, right? As a producer, our insurance policy is constantly kicking around in the back of my head, right?
But, like Michael said, it’s some of the more niche rules, like the stuffed animals, like encouraging people to hand things out to our judges, to the spectators, things to ingratiate themselves with the crowd. That opens up the opportunity for even more creativity within the teams, which leads us naturally into the wide array of awards associated with this race as well.
Obviously, we give awards for things like winning the race and going fast. But in addition to that, we give awards for the biggest splash in the water, the most epic breakdown, and things that play more on the creativity and the whimsy associated with this competitive event.
Rath: What I love about that [is that] we hear all the time people trying to get the message across in art and science that failures are a kind of success, so an award for the best breakdown… I love that.
Roundy: There’s also “next to last,” so that means you weren’t last, but you were next to last, and you still get an award for that.
I will say, we’ve had many teams over the years that have wound up getting picked up by our wrecking crew because they broke down on the side, and then come back a year or two later and winning the race entirely. So, it’s amazing to see people pick themselves up and go back to the mad scientists’ lair and rebuild, come back and have a wonderful race.
Rath: What are some of your favorite designs you’ve seen over the years? Anything you want to give us a sneak preview of for this weekend?
Mauro: Oh my goodness. So, without sharing too much, we have a team coming this weekend who has a machine entirely of wood. This is a first for LKSR. This is, from what I know, a first for kinetic racing in general, and we are very excited. We’ve been privy to some sneak previews of this machine, and I, for one, am thrilled to see this thing race.
Rath: It’s entirely wood? Because I know a lot of the vehicles are sort of bicycle-based, so there’s no metal?
Roundy: They do have gears to be able to pedal, to move, but everything else is made out of wood, which is amazing.
Rath: Wow, very cool. Michael, what about some of your favorites?
Roundy: We have a racer that’s been here since 2016. He’s been making all kinds of curious machines over the years — you know, single-pilot sculptures and three-person sculptures. This year, he created a sculpture for some of the pit crew who have ridden along with him over all these years. He’s actually going to be the pit crew for that particular team.
They’re called “What the Shell,” so it looks like a giant snail, which is absolutely amazing, and I can guarantee that they are going to be in the running for an Ace Champion award this year.
Rath: You know, this is all so much fun, and I know that the number one rule here is to have fun, but I’ve got to wonder… With all these great brain scientists and artists, are you hoping people walk away from this with something bigger?
Mauro: We are. It’s a wonderful opportunity that we have been given to do what we do in the city of Lowell, especially at this time in history, with so many things in jeopardy regarding the STEM fields and education.
With all of the funding cuts to education, it means that a lot of schools — especially those in lower-income communities — are forced to cut programs to make their budgets work, which means only providing sort of bare bones educational opportunities.
That’s why we take our jobs producing this race so seriously, because this platform provides an accessible community-based experience to engage in STEM and the arts.
