Meep Meep and Meyond is The Grand East Coast National Mediocre Champion
- Fabiana Cesa
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
by Fabiana Cesa Last May 2, the Nova Labs Kinetic Sculpture Team (NLKST) captured the highest honor at the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, earning the title of Grand East Coast National Mediocre Champion for its outstanding performance aboard Meep Meep and Meyond, a human-powered amphibious vehicle that impressed judges and charmed spectators during the day-long event.
The "mediocre" could not be more tongue-in-cheek. "The award is determined by Mysterious Mathematical Means which include a point scoring system based on artistic merit, engineering prowess, and blinding speed of the Sculpture. The Sculpture with the highest average score in art, engineering, and speed is the Grand Champion (from https://kineticbaltimore.com)."
The story of the NLKST starts back in 2019, with Jeanne Marshall saying “I think this could be a fun team event for NL.” Fun, no doubt, but also hard work. On one hand there are many technical problems to solve with a very small budget; on the other, as you probably know well, human interaction is no picnic. And to add to the soup of metaphors, the marriage of engineering and art is not exactly a long lasting honeymoon.
This year’s sculpture is a much improved version of last year's Proud Mary, which won the Engineering Award. Proud Mary was born when a member of the team found a 7 ft conduit reel abandoned in the Reston woods.
No doubt Proud Mary was a feat of engineering –an entirely novel pedaling mechanism was created to allow three kinetinauts to propel the gigantic wheels. Proud Mary won the engineering award, even though she stopped often to put chains back in place… and didn’t quite stop before getting extra personal with a parked car. The conversion from Mary to Meep Meep brought much coveted improvements in steering and braking systems. Now the middle seat controls the stabilizing rear-wheel for fine steering control, and the 24” stainless steel brake discs with hydraulic calipers are mounted right on the big wheels. Because the basic vehicle was already built, this year there was time to focus on the artistic part of the endeavor.
One team member thought that the giant wheels were reminiscent of the Roadrunner’s spinning legs when going at full speed, thus the sculpture was dressed accordingly.
A team consists of three riders and a sizable pit crew that follows on bikes, carrying tools and other supplies over a 15-mile circuit. Everybody should look the part, hence the matching shirts. Safety rules require that all participants wear bike helmets, so they were decorated with theme appropriate items like 3d printed roadrunners and coyotes and cardboard anvils.
Another rule states “Each Sculpture must carry at all times 1 comforting item of psychological luxury heretofore referred to as the ‘Homemade Sock Creature’ (HSC).” For the NL team, this year’s HSC was the Coyote, consulting a handy ACME catalog.
“Kinetic Sculpture Racing is the ultimate test of a maker - nothing else combines engineering, artistry and endurance like it,” said Paul Chase, captain of the team. “Months of planning, building, testing, and teamwork went into Meep Meep and Meyond, and then winning Grand Mediocre Champion is really overwhelming - I’m hugely thankful to the team, everyone who supported us, AVAM and the city of Baltimore for cheering and meeping at us all day.”
Test indeed! During the race, the sculpture and the team must conquer three major obstacles: water, sand and mud. A video is worth a thousand words, per frame, at 30 frames per second is… saving me a ton of words.
The winning team includes eleven members (Paul Chase, Kevin Bruestle, Joseph Miller, Fabiana Cesa, Thomas Carver, Melissa Gold, Ron Keesing, Liana Keesing, Senna Keesing, Julian Grunauer, and Michael Kutner), who dedicated many afternoons and evenings to designing and building the sculpture. Support from Nova Labs, its members and countless friends, family and even Paul’s neighbors in the Daniels Run Woods community helped make the project possible.
Joseph Miller, a veteran team member, expressed his delight in this way: “Taking home the top prize at the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race was an incredible moment, but the real highlight was the journey it took to get there. There’s nothing quite like the camaraderie of a team working through the ‘how-to’ of hands-on engineering, figuring out exactly how to make a wild artistic vision actually move. Seeing the art and the mechanics finally click together in such a tangible way was the most rewarding part of the whole process. Winning was just the cherry on top of a long, fun, and deeply fulfilling experience with a great group of people. ”
The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race has become one of the city’s most anticipated traditions, drawing thousands of spectators each year and celebrating creativity, ingenuity, and community spirit. This event, organized by the Museum of Visionary Art, successfully integrates engineering and art and lets adults tap into their inner children, literally allowing unconventional ideas to flourish and materialize. As long as it is safe, it is not too crazy for the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race.
The next challenge for the team is to get Meep Meep and Meyond ready for the 4th of July Parade in Fairfax City, and the next BKSR will be on May 1st 2027.
A pictorial history of Nova Labs’ participation in the BKSR can be found in their website. 2026 Meep Meep and Meyond, Grand Mediocre East Coast Champion
2025 Proud Mary’s Return, winner of the Engineering Award
2024 Long Sphinx, winner of the Monumental Masterpieces Award
2023 2 Bee or Not 2 Bee
2022 Time Maker, winner of the Time Warp Award
2021 Wrecking Bear (remote miniature sculpture race), winner of the Engineering Award
2019 Nova LabsMobile
Also look for memorabilia on the walls and hallways of our makerspace.
Find out more in the #kinetic-sculpture channel. Everybody is welcome to join the team, your commitment can be of any size you want to make it.