Canberra's Kinetic Sculpture Race is back after a four-year hiatus - and funding is available for people who want to build their own whimsical, wacky and working machine to take part in the land, water and sand challenge in November.
Downer public servant Dan Watters is the defending grand champion, winning the last race in 2022 by riding Ronin, a dragon bike fitted with two seats from the old Electric Shadows cinema. (It has added floats to do the water bit.)
"The Kinetic Sculpture Race, it's just fabulous," Dan said.
"It just encourages people to be outrageous and to have fun and at the same time to try to push some engineering boundaries. It's a race over land, sand and water so it takes a bit of engineering to figure that out. But some of the craft are just magnificent."
The next race will be held on Saturday, November 7 at Lake Burley Griffin. It will take in some of the sand of the foreshore, some land and some water on the lake.
Grant applications are now open for funding of up to $1000 for participants to help build new machines.
Applications close at midnight on August 15.
The one-day race in November of human-powered, amphibious, art vehicles is hoped to bring back some of the fun and spectacle of Canberra's long-gone, much-lamented Birdman Rally.
Organiser Travis Bullock said kinetic sculpture races were known as the "triathlon of the art world", and had a long history, originating in the United States more than 50 years ago.
They were as much about participation as anything else. The biggest trophy was the Mediocre Award which went to the person who finished in the middle of the pack. The Grand Champion trophy, meanwhile, was tiny. Needless to say, the motto of the race was "for the glory".
"We have trophies for everything," Travis said. "The Biggest Splash, The Best Splash, The Slowest...."
Travis and his wife Constance Titterton have already given Canberra some memorable kinetic sculptures.
Shelly the Snail meandered the streets of Braddon at lunchtimes and Cosmo the cockatoo bobbed up at Enlighten.
ArtsACT provided $46,000 in funding for this year's race which has allowed the $1000 micro-grants to be given out to builders.
The race will be part of the Craft and Design Canberra Festival in November.
