Rube Goldberg Final Assignment : due Tuesday, April 26 Critique

INTRODUCTION:

From the children's game Mousetrap, to many videos (see below a sampling of OK GO), Rube Goldberg machines is a unique challenge to tie together interdisciplinary art by combining Science and Visual Arts.  

ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM:  To Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

Your final assignment for 3D Design is to build a Rube Goldberg machine.  For a successful result, there should be a drawing in your sketchbook of what your are planning on doing (which must be done neatly for full marks) before you actually build your machine.   Please research your machine well, as well as your content.  Please have all drawings approved before you build!  Try to produce a visually interesting work in a sophisticated way  

Hints:

Think about keeping it clean and simple!

Watch your Edges!!

Use objects around you - remember you can be savey with this.  Use objects that prove to be visually interesting.  

think it out well - It does not have to be complex or large - can be small and compact.

  

HISTORY:

Rube Goldberg

 Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist best known for his zany invention cartoons. He was born in San Francisco on the 4th of July, 1883 – and graduated from U. Cal Berkeley with a degree in engineering. His first job at the San Francisco Chronicle led to early success, but it wasn’t until he moved to NYC and began working for Hearst publications that he became a household name. Rube Goldberg is the only person ever to be listed in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as an adjective. It’s estimated that he did a staggering 50,000 cartoons in his lifetime.

OK GO does Rube Goldberg...

CHECK IT OUT: interesting website :  http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/22/8381963/rube-goldberg-machine-contest-history-ideas

Look at this machine that makes music!

Part of the brilliance behind The Page Turner by Brooklyn-based artist Joseph Herscher is the fact that it’s set off in a completely natural way. In order to start the crazy chain reaction, Herscher takes a sip of his coffee while he reads the paper. By the time he’s done reading a page, the machine turns it for him.

We’re no grease monkeys, so if someone took apart a car and laid out all of the parts in front of us we couldn’t say for sure what they all do. It’s likely that it you asked us to put it back together we’d end up with something that looked closer to this Rube Goldberg machine by Honda than a functional car.

https://vimeo.com/24504225

WIRED - CRITIQUE - TUESDAY, APRIL 12

Great job there folks - I reckon I will see the reset Thursday!

OK this is the next problem to solve!!  I know you will do well!

Project  Lines: Drawing in Three Dimensions CRIT on TUES!

Definition: A point is a non-dimensional figure. It has no length, width, or depth. It occupies no space. If we imagine a point, however, moving through space in time, leaving a path behind it, that path describes a line, a one-dimensional figure having length but no height or depth.

Assignment: Pick a domestic object that is readily available to you on a daily basis. Try to select a form that is interesting in a variety of directions. Do 3 sketches of the object(s.) Start with the contours and continue by filling in the voids. Keep in mind this must all be done with considerate line-work in order for the drawing to translate into a 3D object. Using medium weight wire, create a sculpture of your selected object. Think of the wire as a way of drawing in space. Most of us have more experience with working in 2 dimensional media rather than with creating works in the round. As you work, train yourself to see things in 3 dimensions, to understand the lines, shapes, and forms in space that make up this subject. Your sketches should bridge the gap between the original object and the completed wire construction. One freestanding piece will be due for critique.

-3 sketches due at Critique  - TUESDAY April 12

Materials: Soft black annealed steel wire. The thickness of wire is referred to as its gauge: the higher the number, the thinner the wire. I suggest 16-gauge wire, thicker will be too difficult to manipulate and thinner will not be strong enough to stand, however you can use a 20 or 22 gauge for connections. 18 gauge wire

Tools: Needle nosed pliers with built-in cutters, safety glasses and Sketchbook

Learning Outcomes: At the completion of this assignment, the student will be able to manipulate and control the wire to a degree that they can draw in three-dimensional space. They will demonstrate an ability to visualize their piece in three dimensions and make aesthetic and design decisions accordingly.


and since we are in the wired stuff:  here are some killer wire sculptures....

ASSIGNMENT: Organic Form - Soft Sculpture Selfie!

Soft sculpture assignment

Create a self-portrait of yourself using soft materials.   Use basic sewing methodology.  Think about what makes you - you and utilize material to build the sculpture!

The work can be either representational or abstract!

use burlap, felt, found materials, twine, rope, string, fabric,  - create a fantasy you maybe - or an idealized you!

Research - textiles and soft sculptures!  get ideas before proceedings and then create!!

Think about elements and properties in art - size, color, texture, etc.  think about why you are choosing what you are choosing.  

http://www.artperra.fr/?p=423

Response: Altered Book Assignment

artist: Jessica Gray

artist: Anthony Felton

artist: Brittany Burt

artist: Joanna Ingles

artist: Hannah Stevens

artist: Charlene Dietrich

artist: Sarah Vimmer

artist:  Neil Evans

artist: Alex Howard

artist: Ging Nichols

artist: Alexander Morgan

INSTALLATION assignment: to think about: installation

here is the next assignment to think about - we will talk more about it in class on Tuesday.  You can fare it alone or in a group.  All good.

Installation

The word Installation refers to the artistic practice or organizing objects in relation to their surroundings. Whether inside or outside, whether architectural or landscape-oriented, site-specific art initially takes the "site" as an actual location, a tangible reality, its identity composed of a unique combination of physical elements: length, depth, height, texture, and shape of walls and rooms; scale and proportion of plazas, buildings, or parks; existing conditions of lighting, ventilation, traffic patterns; distinctive topographical features. In this recognition it becomes an integral component of the work.   It can be large or small.

Students will examine through research and practice the components of installation art and produce a site-specific work demonstrating the successful resolution of installation procedures. The focus of the assignment is the relationship between object(s) and space, wherein the artist is in control of, or makes decisions regarding, both. What you make/choose is dependent upon where you put it and vice-versa. These components are interdependent.

When considering a site, ask yourself:

What purpose does the site have?  Who experiences it?  What is its history? What would you like to say.

The answers to these questions will lead to subject matter.

A considered choice of location and planning is necessary for the completion of this assignment.  Students should select a site based on the formal and or conceptual parameters posed within their project. Research is key. Sites to consider include, but are not restricted to, on-campus, within the classroom, art department or gallery, home, outdoors, etc. Consult with the instructor before installing work on campus,  in case special permission will most likely be required.

Experimentation with media is encouraged.

Artists for reference:

Richard Serr

Christo and Jean-Claude

Donald Judd

James Turrell

Yayoi Kusama

Barbara Kruger

Andy Goldsworthy

  

Sarah Sze: Improvisation | "Exclusive" | Art21

Rivers and Tides (Documentary Film 2001)