The Un-Incredible Machine (Week 4 Theme: Discussions of Place)

Theme: Discussions of Place

Context:

When Max was talking about 'place' to dispense narrative and how it can take a central role to a work, it made me think of the computer game The Incredible Machine I played as a kid. In each level of the game, the ball is like the main character and the environment it needs to go through creates the 'narrative' - the objects and obstacles either help or hinder its progress, and we follow its dilemma until it finally reaches its goal (the end of the level). The user also gets to create the place themselves by building or partly building each level.

Method: Create a simple Rube Goldberg machine of my own using the physical materials on the trolley. Essentially, I'm making the place which the ball will be going through, and through the place/environment, the ball becomes a bit of a character - like a hero going on its journey.

Response:

I didn't realise how hard it was to create a Rube Goldberg machine of my own, especially with limited materials like no glue or scissors, but it was a lot of fun to do. I just jumped right in, wihtout any blueprint or sketch in mind. Like the Incredible Machine game itself, it involved a lot of tinkering to get things right.

First, I created a box as my base environment, and played around with the various materials to create the obstacles. It was quite hard to get the physics right - with either the ball falling off (and having to create barriers to help its course), or not falling at all (not enough angle in the slopes). Or when the seesaw doesn’t work as expected. Or when the ball goes too fast.

In the end, I chose to upload this video because the ball unexpectedly avoided all the obstacles in the end by bending around them. I have no idea how it happened, but thought it was a funny, serendipitous moment of the day, like the ball was manouvering on its own.