Draft:Chrinitoid



The Chrinitoid is the common name of a large kinetic sculpture installed on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) from 1972 to 1984. . The sculpture, officially known as "Two Rectangles, Vertical Gyratory Up, Variation III", was created by George Rickey who was an adjunct professor of art in the School of Architecture at RPI from 1961 to 1966.

The origin of the name has been attributed to an article in the campus humor magazine, The Unicorn. The article was titled "I am Joe's Chrinitoid" and included an illustration that resembled the sculpture. The Unicorn referenced The Chrinitoid in a second issue with a cover story titled "The Chrinitoid Crisis" featuring a parody of the sculpture portraying its iconic panels as slide rule s.

The Chrinitoid was also referenced in Steve Stanton and Tom White's parody work "Not the Rensselaer Handbook" The Chrinitoid was removed from campus in 1984 and moved to Rickey's workshop in East Chatham, NY. It was sold to UBS in 1990 and installed at their Schanzenbrücke-Building in Zurich

The sculpture was originally built in 1970 and stood 35' tall. Each of the rectangular panels are 19'6" x 59". In a 1979 interview, Rickey mentioned the dimensions of a similar variant (Two Rectangles Vertical Gyratory II, Variation IV) as 20' long, 5' wide and 10" thick, each weighing about 1000 pounds and the post weighed about ton and a half and was rated to withstand winds of 80 miles per hour. He noted that the variant at RPI was "somewhat smaller".

In Media

 * The Unicorn - "I am Joe's Chrinatoid"
 * The Unicorn - "The Chrinitoid Crisis"
 * Not the Rensselaer Handbook - definition
 * Rensselaer Magazine - One Last Thing - In Search of the Chrinitoid - Winter 2004