Our fuckduckmachine was prototyped on the last week of the workshop.
A machine that can create a fear of missing out (aka FOMO) by regulating the availability of information on someone's screen through a button that gives a small electric shock inducing a small amount of pain.
'Hidden screen within, Electric shock reveals all, Frustration's surprise.'
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In the past I have mostly made inanimate objects of the day to day life. For example, creating a stool demands the understanding of proportion, the basic laws of gravity with geometry, the materials and much more. A stool is a system that will welcome movement but will most probably not create movement itself. So what happens when you create objects that can welcome movement and create movement? How does it change when electricity is involved?
The creation of a toy for children abled me to understand a bit better objects that welcome movement and create movement. The object hangs on a string tied between two walls, and rolls between the two sides thanks to its playful wheel. This basic system works without electricity. Therefore I had never created a machine that was motorised.
Being part of the creation of a machine
I was lucky to be part of a very dynamic group with a lot of different skills. We all worked together at different moments and were not easily destabilised by the pressure of the little time we had. We were all very happy to be able to use all the digital fabrication machines so freely and we made good usage of them. We had small 3D printed parts for the rotating metal bar, the whole box was laser cut, we used copper strips as end switches for the Z axis, we created a wooden frame for the polarisers, we laser cut the plastic casing of the button, we made a switch out of a lighter button with a stone, and Santi gave us two very small dc motors.
I had a very good time coding with Marius and understanding Arduino a bit more. I feel like coding for something physical and visual is a bit easier to understand. We could see in live whether the motors were doing what we wanted or not. It was a lot of trial and error but patience is key. Thanks to Marius knowledge and his use of chat gpt, we saved a lot of time researching specific codes lines. Our teachers also helped us a lot to fix our code. They were always there to surround us in case of paniiiic.
Being able to familiarise myself with artefacts and the reuse of components gives me a new creative freedom. It made me understand that I could hack machines in my favor. Machines that seem inaccessible because of their prices or technology, could be potentially replicated with common objects that are accessible to everyone.
Empowering people with this 'hacking' knowledge could reduce our consumption, people could solve their issues without depending on another service and the technology created would fit very specific needs that could be shared by different communities.
This is the final outcome of our machine. This reckless design represents our helpless need for digital information and how far we would go to obtain the information. The transparent plastic and copper button invites you to press it without warning, triggering a small electrocution. The wooden frame goes down and unveils a strip of video playing on a screen. Taken by hypnotizing curiosity, the person presses the button again, triggering another small electrocution. The wooden frame goes down again and unveils a larger strip of video playing on a screen. So on, until the frame touches the base of the box.
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