Ned Schaper is a kinetic sculptor, poet and performer.  He uses found objects as the raw materials for his sculptures. The real magic is in Schaper’s intuitive engineering approach. He does not know what the object will become when he begins the process. Instead, by working with the materials of the found object, he lets the object’s ultimate function emerge on its own, which leads to beautiful and unexpected results.

Schaper’s Museum Of Kinetic Art includes nearly one hundred mechanical sculptures all made from found objects. The sculptures, have been made using the principles of ART—Available Resource Technology. Each sculpture has a unique name: “Energy Plant,” “The Thought Launcher,” “Sharka,” and “Americana Duck.” They also have a unique purpose in Schaper’s one-man Surrealistic Pop Science Theater as the sculptic set, the large landscape of kinetic objects containing props, costumes and characters for performances.

Schaper has delighted audiences for over 30 years with his theater, and today live performances draw upon 440 poetic tales contained in a narrative called The Three Days of Beveldom. The story takes place in the magical world of Beveldom under the guidance of a fictional leader named Mat Bevel. Beveldom’s 52 characters, museum “staff members,” demonstrate the wonders of kinetic art using the sculptures in the museum as headdresses, motorized vehicles, musical instruments and mechanical puppets. The theater’s archetypal characters, with names like Walter Ego, Jester Physics, The New Non-Prophet and Dr. Paradox, help people see themselves and our culture in a brilliant new way using poetry, puns, physics, comedy and music.

In 2014, Schaper’s art was featured in a 2-month solo retrospective exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art called Welcome to Beveldom: Mat Bevel’s Museum of Kinetic Art. For the first time, the Tucson Museum of Art included live performances as part of a solo artist exhibition, with two performances that were well attended and well received. The kid-friendly exhibition broke all attendance records for the Tucson Museum of Art during this time period.

For the past two years, Schaper’s been capturing his ‘kinetic junk theater’ using stop motion animation, greenscreen compositing and video technology. In the near future, the sculptures in the museum will be featured in a virtual reality tour, allowing people anywhere to experience the motion, sounds and colors of the museum in 360 degrees.

Schaper’s work will become part of The Mat Bevel Show, a new TV show produced by Bevelvision Productions, at two studio locations in Tucson and in Patagonia, AZ. Initial footage is live at matbevel.com.