Automata

My automaton's concept was this: in life, you don't always win. In fact, you probably won't (3/4 of the time). I exhibited this concept by constructing a box that is reminiscent of a fortune teller booth painted black with a black "curtain" in the back. The front of the automata features a large circular hole that the viewer can look into and see their "fortune".
In the center of the automaton is a hanging box that features four sides ("no", "no", "no", "yes"). The idea is that the viewer would turn the crank at the top and would be given their "fortune" with one small turn of the box. For my gears I chose to create a Geneva Stop not only because I liked the intermittent motion, but because it fit my concept well.
Constructing my gears was very difficult using cardboard. Because the Geneva Stop motion requires very smooth surfaces to function correctly, my automaton did not always work. The gears would trip up often and I'd have go back in and reset them. I try to fix the them to make them work 100% of the time but it was near impossible with the cardboard. In turn, the technical skill in this project was sacrificed for the concept of the piece.

Automata

For my automata I made the toothbrush move back and forth in order to give the illusion that the guy is having his teeth brushed. I wanted to focus on the mechanical movement of a simple everyday task.

I wanted to go with a horse that could go up and down, and in a circle. I hadn't seen any examples that did both to one subject so I had to figure it out on my own. I thought if having two gears to make the circle, than having something else that could make the whole contraption go up and down. It later occurred to me that I could have the gear spinning it, be in a shape that could also make the hose go up and down. I started out using gears, but I found that I couldn't make the gears fit with each other, especially in the unusual shape. After making a bunch of failed gears, I realized I did have enough friction to make the odd shape not a gear. I was happy with this for a while, unt
il I put the horse on. First the horse put weight on only one side of the stick, so that's why the sun-which was one of the failed gear- became attach to it. Also, it would only spin if the shape moved across the gears and I had accidently glued it too close so there was not enough friction for it to turn. I fixed it, but contact with the shape and gear is so light, that the gear often falls out of place and has to be set back in place. Anther problem that sometimes happens is that the yarn holding up the stick sometimes gets tangled. Inside the box, I painted a dessert landscape with a camel that I had painted, cutout and then pasted into the box. I also covered the box in sand paper and the floor of the box, the sand paper is cut in small round shapes and layered. Overal I like the way this came out, though it wasn't as goodas I had hoped. I wish the actually turning would work better, but I still havn't figured out a better way to solve the problem of going both up and down and around.

After brining it to class, I realized a big issue I was having was that the stick that the horse and sun were on was not straight. I added a little bit of cardboard to the top to keep it straighter. I think it helped a lot.

A Personal Record of Time

I found this assignment a little hard. It would have been easier for me to record the passing of time in a week or a month. It might not have been so difficult if Thursday wasn't such a boring day for me. This class is the only class I have that day and I spend the time sitting in my room doing homework. I bought a water bottle and thought I could photograph it every time I took a drink to record time. I had to make the water bottle last the whole day, so i tended to drink from it very sparely. If I had more pictures I believe this project would be better. Or if I had a week, I could have used many water bottles.

Automata

My Carousel automata is designed to have one horse go up as the other goes down to represent the horses on a carousel. These horses are somewhat creepy and made of only cans (coca cola cans to be exact).

The Dancing Automaton

Using a crank mechanism, this joyous fellow leaps and dances from side to side.

Snack Dispenser Autonoma

This Cardboard Autonoma is designed to dispense a snack food of your choice (works best with pretzels or cereal or even candy). You simply place the food in the opening at the top of the box and then wind the wheel to the right. The opening that was blocked before turning the wheel is now open and your snack can now pour out into your hand or a bowl.

Bunny Automata

My cardboard automata is a rabbit that jumps up and down in some grass. I used a reciprocating motion crank to make it move up and down, and fashioned a cardboard wind-up key to use as a handle.

When asked to document 24 hours of my personal life, my mind went blank. What do I do that could be significant enough to hold a time slot or measurement? I couldn't conjure an action or a significant influence I had on my environment, so I documented my environment.
I feel a loss of time on a regular basis; I'm consumed with thoughts and observations of my ever so busy surroundings.







I designed an assignment sheet for the public of Alfred stating :

"Time can be defined by an individual based on a sequence or precess. I am asking for individuals of Alfred to document their day with the minimal of the following information -

• Where are you located right now?
• What time is it?
• Wat are some thoughts that have consumed your week?
•What thoughts have consumed your day?
•What are you thinking in this exact moment?

Document this information on a an object, piece of paper, a wrapper, or even a napkin (basically if you can document these questions on it, then you may use it). Options beyond this include providing personal objects found in your wallet, pockets, etc.

As a final note I do not want to know your name. I just want evidence or rather a bookmark of where you are in this moment."

I used the information gathered from over 10 people to contrast how I saw my day. I could not document moments even when I tried during the day. A lot was on my mind and it felt as thought these thoughts were a swarm of bees, frustrated in their attempt to find order. So, I documented in one fell swoop my thoughts through words and depictions. I wrote over the words repetitively when ever a new thought would disrupt the previous one's track. After concluding the documentation of chaotic thoughts, I burnt parts of the paper at midnight, because thought most of these thoughts would consume my days to follow, I was working away at the edges to clear some room for the moments to come.

Automaton

In class we were asked to make our own version of an Automaton which is a mechanical device that makes movement, noise, etc. In mine i decided to use gears to rotate a dowel at the end. All of my gears are perpndicular tot he ones next to it. By working on this project i learned that if ur gears arent perfectly cut, the gears skip and dont rotate. It took me many tries to get them right but I finally was able to make the device work.

Automaton

Automatons are a form of mechanical toy designed to either serve as entertainment or to actually serve a function. Early robots were defined as automatons. For this project, we were to design an automaton using certain principles of mechanics such as gears, pistons, levers, and many others.

My automaton I designed to look like an old car engine. The crankshaft design I utilized was one I made up, using two reciprocating shafts. One shaft has a crank that was turned, which transferred its power to the other shaft with rubber bands, which turned a fan attached to the second shaft. I then decorated it with spray paint and various bits of junk to create an atmosphere sort of like a "mechanical wasteland."

Cardboard Automata- FANCY CATS!

So this is my cardboard Automata. i made 2 reciprocating motion cranks, one for each cat.

special thanks to my friend Sara for writing the awesome poem about my cats which i incorporated into my piece. enjoy!

Cardboard Automatan

For my cardboard Automatan I decided to construct a mechanism that would move vertically up and down. Through this design I wanted to make the upward and downward motion to enable a tea bag to automatically drop in and out of a cup of water with only the turning of the handle.

Automata

the handle turns makes the flower spin up around and move up and down

Cardboard Automaton: A Clicking Mechanism

Albeit, the design of my automaton is simple however its focus was aimed toward noise-making rather than full-fledged narrative. The clean, negative space-heavy aesthetic isolates and accentuates the clicking sound (as well as the gears), which is generated by bobby pins:

Note the arrangement of the pins (sort of a musical box effect). Though it's not a video (I didn't have one at ready disposal), I recorded an audio clip of my mechanism in motion:



Here is the side, where cranking takes place.

Directional Automaton

My hand crank automaton used two gears to cause the needle of a hand crafted cardboard compass turn on a 360 degree rotational axis.

Catch the Butterfly

I decided to explore the possibility of two things moving at one time while only turning one handle. Thinking about how I would accomplish this I decided to make a butterfly flying away from the net. The net for the most part misses the butterfly but if the wings and the net are at the exact right position it will catch the butterfly. This explores the idea of people trying really hard to get what they want, but they wont get that unless they work hard.

Automata: Just Keep Swimming

For this project, I decided to make a dolphin jumping in the waves because I want something that would either go up and down or side to side. After making the gear, it ended up going both ways. And a dolphin popped into my head when i was messing around with the gear. I think its really cool when it is moving because it really looks like the dolphin is jumping out of the waves and back in.

Automata

This project I put a little bit of a personal twist on. I used my real wisdom teeth that I had removed a year ago and the crank lifts them then cracks them on a mirror underneath to make a sound. I based the mask on masks my father used to scare me with when I was little that always stayed with me.

Recording Time

Within 24 hours, I recorded time by how many drinks I drank throughout the day. I arranged them by orded of which i drank them. I thought it was interesting because i never realized how much I actually drank within a day.

atomata? Time

For this project i worked with the idea of a zen garden. A hand crank makes you work for the serenity.

My Automata

I decided to focus on motion with my automata. I wanted to make something that was very fun and easy to use. In addition I wanted the motion to sort of mesmerize you.
the circles are off set in such a way that a wave is created in the fabric on top. one problem I ran into was there being too much friction between the circles and the pistons. I decided to apply tape where I needed it and this solved my problems. To farther people making these out of card board... don't use gears. make them simple and good.

Tracking Time Without a Clock

In this assignment, we had to figure out a way to record a passage of approximately 22 hours without using any type of traditional clock. So, I recored time by using the people I talked to most throughout the day. To do this, I had people I spoke to stamp their fingerprint on a sheet of paper, and then I'd write their name on their print. For each period of "talking time" with them, i would trace their fingerprint with a pen. At the end of the day, I had about 20 fingerprints, with as many as six rings around one. This recorded the time I spent talking to these people throughout the day in a way much like how a tree has rings to show its age.

personal record of time

Personal Record of Time

For this assignment, I decided to record everything I ate over the course of a 24-hour period of time through the use of photos. However, I didn't simply just take a photo of everything I consumed; in some photos I tried to convey what time it was using natural light. In others I wanted to show the setting in which the food was eaten. Trying to convey these ideas worked well for some images and not for others.

Cardboard Automata

My automata is based off Buddhist meditation.I have Buddha in the center that rises and falls while the surrounding clouds move forward and backwards.

A Walk with King Alfred

I have never noticed how many times I walked past the King Alfred sculpture in one day, until I was asked to record time without using a clock. Every time that I passed by King Alfred I photographed the statue and in doing so I was able to record the change in the time through the changes in the suns location.

Mouse House

I thought it would be a neat idea to construct a miniature house that a mouse could live in. In this house, the mouse is being moved up and down like he is dancing. Viewing this action is possible through the front view only where I cut out a "window". I chose to match the house to the skin color of the mouse (blue) then the interior rooms and roof were matched to be compliments of that. I was not sure if seeing the actual device that was making the mouse was necessary for grading, so the front wall of the first floor opens up like a book.