Inception: Rube Goldberg Style

Here is the video from our final Rube Goldberg project. Enjoy!

Rube Goldberg: Inception Style

So after countless hours working on our first studio project, we finally got it completed. My team consisted of Donald Burlock and Kyohei Yoshioka, two talented designers in our program. (note: click on the images to make them larger)



Project Summary

Our Rube Goldberg device was inspired by the movie Inception. The aesthetics of the design, from the bridge to the city facade, mimic various scenes in the movie. The beginning scene tells the story of Cobb's (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) journey from reality into the dreamworld. At the end of scene, the ball falling into the funnel represents Ariande's (the architect played by Ellen Page) plunge into the dream world and how that events causes a chain reaction of future events in the movie. The bridge scene is from the major scene in the movie when the characters are asleep in the van while the chemist Yusef tries to evade the mind's defenses. The parallel of the characters being in a dream within a dream is mimicked in the redundancy of the bridge system. The last scene of our system tells the story of the collapse of the dream world. Many "kicks" at the end such as the chair falling into the tub and the elevators crashing to top of the world represent the characters' tumultuous journey back to reality. Traces of other movie iconography are found throughout the device such as the spinning top in both the first and last scene and how the dominoes all have a character totem (a spinning top, a die, a poker chip, and a chess piece) etched into their surface.

Materials

Triple thick chipboard and wood were the main materials used in the construction of our Rube Goldberg device. The chipboard was chosen because of it's structural integrity and for its ability to be manipulated with the laser cutter. The wood served mainly as a strengthening material for the various structures found in the device such as the bridge and the riser for the first scene with the city facade.

Here is a look at the timeline of the project from study models to refinement...

Schematics

Intro Scence
designer. Duane Rollins

Redudant System
designer. Kyohei Yoshioka


Final Scene
designer. Donald Burlock

Study models



Concept Refinement and Final System










(video coming soon...)

Studio Project 1: Rube Goldberg Machines

So we are gearing up for a new semester and our first task is to design a Rube Goldberg machine with a little twist. Before I give you our project outline, let me give you a brief history of Rube Goldberg, straight from Wikipedia to save me time typing:

"Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was a Jewish American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways – now known as Rube Goldberg machines."


Still don't know enough? Here are a few videos of Rube Goldberg machines you can check out...







So back to the project... Our machine can only encompass a 3 x 3 x3 ft area and it must last for exactly 60 seconds. If that wasn't enough of a challenge, the machine must also give off an audio and visual indication at every 15 seconds until one minute has elapsed. AND if that wasn't enough, it must be a cohesive system and look, well, you know.... designed (that's what we're in school for right?)! This is going to be a very fun and challenging warm up exercise. We've already started working on the assignment and there's is going to be a big surprise to our project... You'll have until September 13 to see the final machine but I will keep you updated on our progress as we go along. Until then, I'll drop you a little hint of our design...

NEW YEAR NEW ATTITUDE

Hello Everyone! A new academic year is beginning and I'm gearing up for a very productive and exciting year. I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be doing many different things this semester. From new studio projects to teaching in a middle school (scary, right?) and even new research, this should be a very, very full (and busy) year. I have a renewed commitment to keep everyone better informed of my progress so I will be using this blog to keep everyone up to date (and I will use Twitter to vent...). So get ready for a brand new and exciting year! I have also gotten into street art and have been inspired this summer by the British street artist Bansky. Check out his work for some inspiration (http://www.banksy.co.uk/).