Kinetic Sculptures are amphibious, human powered works of art custom built for the race. Each May, the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) hosts the East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race Championship on the shore of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in central Maryland. The eight-hour race covers 15 miles—mostly on pavement, but also including a trip into the Chesapeake Bay and through mud and sand.

Kinetic Sculpture Racing traces its roots to Ferndale, California in 1969 when artist Hobart Brown upgraded his son’s tricycle into a 5-wheeled pentacycle that was part of a race down Main Street. (Hobart did not win.). The original event, the Kinetic Grand Championship in Humboldt County, California, is also called the “Triathlon of the Art World” because art and engineering are combined with physical endurance during a three day cross country race that includes sand, mud, pavement, a bay crossing, a river crossing and major hills. You can learn more on Wikipedia.

Video from 2011 Baltimore parade

Video from 2010 race in California:

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2011 Grand Mediocre East Coast Champion: PLATYPUS

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Art: Ankh-ers Away

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Engineering: Am-Ish Sin Caballo

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People’s Choice: Go Ask Alice

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Golden Dinosaur: The Lobe Trotters

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Sock Creature of the Universe: Bee-Have

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Golden Flipper: The Claw Machine

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