Mass and Individual Moving
Phoenix is a wooden printing machine whose giant hammer can strike medallions in silver, gold or copper. Each medallion bears the name Phoenix Works.
Phoenix is a wooden printing machine whose giant hammer can strike medallions in silver, gold or copper. Each medallion bears the name Phoenix Works.
The colossus is 6 meters high, 11 meters long, 4,5 meters wide and weighs a total of 2,500 kg. The mechanism is not based on solar or wind energy like previous machines, but on the operation of cogs. A specially designed bas-relief logo is chiseled into the Phoenix. The logo symbolises the Benu, a bird from Egyptian mythology and a precursor of the phoenix. The hammer bears the inscription 'Massarum atque Individuorum Motus': Mass and Individual Movement.
In 1998, the exhibition Flanders Technology International (Ghent) invites the Phoenix to print the logo of the exhibition: a handshake between a human and a robot.
