Vitalist Kinetics looks back over two decades of artist Dean Kenning’s kinetic sculptural practice. With images throughout, it traces the journey from the crudely reengineered Man-Machines to the more technologically sophisticated robot Crawlers. Through discussions with contemporary artists Emma Hart and Lindsay Seers, Kenning makes claims for the disreputable genre of kinetic art, proposing a ‘vitalist aesthetics’ of movement which challenges both formalist composition and conceptual ‘cleverness’, whilst seeking to connect us with a feeling for life in all its nervous energy and strangeness. Essays by art theorists John Roberts and Martha Barratt extend the meaning of Kenning’s works into the realms of process philosophy, biosemiotics and techno-critique. Beautifully designed by Emily Benton Book Designs, the book also includes a preface by the artist and an appendix by Robin Klassnik, director of Matt’s Gallery.

Vitalist Kinetics is published by Cross Lane Projects Publications on the occasion of Kenning’s Mark Tanner Sculpture Award Exhibition Evolutionary Love.