APD Week 3

This is the submission for Week 3 APD: Play + Objects.

APD W3

Theme: Play & Object

Context:

For this week’s prompt, I decided to try and lean a little heavily on the play aspect of it and use objects to create something. During class we got to see some exceptional examples for this week’s prompt from previous semesters. While I do not have the skills to make an ENTIRE boardgame (which I thought was absolutely brilliant), I was inspired to try to make something that could result in a collective activity.

I initially could not really come up with anything for a while, but then after looking around on YouTube, I got an idea.

With all the lockdowns and not being able to meet friends, my housemates and I had decided that we would plan a lucky draw costume party once all restrictions were lifted. Therefore, I decided to make something that would facilitate that activity in a better way rather than just use chits. I decided to make a vending machine of sorts that could take in some of my 'funko pops' (small figurines) and they could be dispensed out to tell the person operating who they should dress up as. This could also work for a theme where all the funkos could be from a particular show or genre too.

Method: 

I chose to make this out of cardboard and ad-hoc my way through it. I started with making some sketches to come up with a design that would work. I first got hold of as many cardboard pieces I could get and then started making every part component of it.

Here is where I hit the weirdest and biggest snag. Due to the current lockdown, I could not get a glue gun or liquid glue anywhere. By this point I was pretty deep into the making of this vending machine and did not have to time to come up something new. EZMart came to rescue as I bought a huge amount of masking tape, glue sticks and super glue (only forms of adhesive available, weren't ideal, but kind of worked).

I put together the machine of cardboard with whatever objects I could find lying around (which included pencils and toothpicks to improve structural integrity).

Response: 

I used a big cardboard box as the outside skeleton and cut out each part. There was a rotating component with two compartments to allow the funkos to enter it so that they could be dispensed out. I also used paper (as I could not procure those flexible cardboard pieces) to encase the rotating component, so that the funkos would not fall out while the rotation is happening. I made the compartment that held all the funkos, slant towards the rotating component so that the funkos could slide into the compartment. I made a section where the selected funko would come out from after it got selected.

Here is what the funkily put together vending machine, that I call ‘The Costume Selector’, looked and functioned like:

https://youtu.be/1sX9AcZjkhs

Reflection:

I have to be honest; I wasn’t very happy with the final product. There were a couple of issues as well with it. It didn’t function as smoothly as all the masking tape kept getting in each other’s way. The structural integrity of the machine was very flimsy due to the lack of proper glue or any kind of appropriate adhesive agent.

I was unable to colour or make it look particularly pleasing, as the painting agents and the glue will be arriving a day after the day of the submission.

The machine also needed another cardboard component that could streamline the flow of the funkos into the rotating component. Sometimes two of them would get in each other’s way due to their irregular shapes. I tried to put in a carboard piece that could streamline their movement direction, but the masking tape kept giving out, so I had to remove it. Sometimes, even two funkos came out instead of one.

However, my housemates loved the concept quite a lot and we have decided to work on completing this once all the items come, fix it and then use it for its intended purpose.

“Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.” -Christina Rossetti

I could not finish the object the way I wanted to, but I am glad I gave it a go and absolutely plan on finishing it.

I tried to include some paidia play initially through 'exploration like a toy', but I feel like I wan't able to achieve that. I did however incorporate the theory of loose parts in this week very well, where I moved, combined, redesigned, literally took apart and put back together different materials to create this partially working game with various objects.

References:

I used this video as a reference to plan what I made. This gave me a very good idea of how I could use items lying around to finish at least a prototype of what I wanted to make:

https://youtu.be/sEnBH011TiE