Rube Goldberg Machine Post 4: Studio session notes

MARBLE RACE DISCUSSION NOTES 10/05/12

INTRODUCTION:

Class notes for everything that we discussed regarding the marble race. 

I've tidied it up and made it alot more legible than my notes which meant heaps of cutting and pasting into the various sections.  If I've missed anything or managed to get something horribly wrong then please let me know and I'll change it. [1]

MECHANICS:

• Maybe just tilters.  no fancy tricks.
• Simple things that are done well look good.  Complex things that are done half arsed look terrible.  This doesn't mean you you shouldn't try complex things but do it in the back room where people can't see it.
• I liked the idea the other week about staggering it so that we don't all have to deal with pulleys. [2]

COLLABERATION:

• "It's one of the most difficult things to do well and participate in.  even in Weta Workshop which has been doing this for 20 years there are still a dozen people who do all the work and the others leave at quitting time.  Those people that do the slog pull off the best work in the world"
• The collaberation part has been missed by people.  It has happened but not as much as was anticipated by the beginning.
• Everyone is working in teams of two.  Some are not doing as well so joining another group is an option.  This will take the compliment from 2 to 4 people. [3]

THOUGHTS:

 

TIME

• Time being spent.  Many ideas but had to scrap them due to time.
• just difficult finding time to work on it.
• Organise a day everyone stays behind to work on it.  prefer to work on paintings first.
• We've got 3 weeks left.  What we need to do is adapt and adjust the plans.
• "Other classes haven't done this.  The mockups haven't proven anything.  Theres so much other shit that we've got to focus on it.
• "We put it on you because you people are working above the BCT level.  June the 5th is the deadline.  After that 2 weeks are left to include this into the portfolio"

IMPORTANCE

• It is dropping by the wayside in relation to other projects and assignments.

COMPLEXITY

• The height of them is not a good idea and the project hasn't been thought through.  We are the art class, not the engineers.  There are so many different elements to this thing that it is complicating it.  If we use that corner, the danger of things falling, a simple track is boring.
• Keep it against the wall so people can do it against the wall.
• "I'd like to expand it, I think it can be done.  One thing that is important is the rigidity in ancor points which could eliminate all hangings. 
  Stay with the game plan and get them up and running.  Pick out certain ones that are ready to go and can be modified to work together, other ones could be set up on a table" - Eddie
• "I just thought off the table idea instead of scaling the marble race down you could use that part of the room but keep it in the same shape which keeps the distance down but scales the project down.  This gives everyone the wall to work off instead of empty space"
• Each group works on their designs and makes them work.  once they are in physical form the sections can be juggled together.

ISSUES

• I think, for me I got an idea of what I'm doing for my part of it but as a whole I don't think there has been an even contribution to the project.
• Work as usual but pull finger.
• People need to cheer up about it.

CONCERNS:

SCALE

• In all honesty it's not going to work.  The track needs to be smaller or individual pieces need to be bigger.  I think we might have to scale back to make it a viable option. 
• Concerns about how everythings going to connect with the individual projects.  People have done things at home but there are transportation issues.
• Scaling it back would make more problems.
• We have ideas but haven't tested.

OPTIONS TO MOVE IT FORWARDS:

• Each team develops an individual marble race. [4]
• Scrap the project completely and set a more achievable task which will get everyone more motivated in doing it. [5]
• Scaling it back to a corner.  This is a risk that may or may not work since it would be tedious to redesign everything but many people are building in a smaller scale anyway. 
• If we scale it down there is no wall space for people who have used the walls in their plans.
• Hanging things doesn't seem to be working - many of the hanging mockups have destroyed themselves after only a day.
• Building across tables might be an option.  A table in the corner would allow us to block off a square of the classroom for the track.

TUTORSPEAK:

• We may or may not spend time on the marblerace.
   
• "I can't really comment on the project because it's noto clear it's just a matter of connecting them together.  I've worked in a collaberative envirionment.  This project is doomed and that's not coming from a learning perspective.
   
  Collaberative projects will fall over unless things are led with an iron fist.  It can't be a democracy.  A democracy takes too long to make decisions.  I've worked in a collaberative environment with mutiple teams.  The spokespeople communicate with leader on a daily basis and they go away and talk to their teams but as soon as you take your foot of the gas there's no impetus to see the thing through.
   
  From outside looking in it's too complicated with the mechanisms.  You need to know what your doing, Trial and error, the time frame is too short and it's not percieved as important"
   
• "If we were leaning on you about this then you'd be working your asses off but it isn't percieved as important.  At no point have you all sat down and discused this and then gone to the tutors and told them so.  It doesn't matter if there's problems because you fix them but until the people that are in control of it know about it nothing will happen.
   
  If I was you guys in your situation the first thing I'd do is bring them to the tutors and propose a seperate strategy"
   
• "What we're doing here is a job autopsy.  Once the project was completed we'd deliver it.  What we made, how we made it etc.  the biggest lesson we've learnt is that we're having this discussion now and we're not having it two weeks ago"
   
• "Dictatorship.  A good way to do collaberations the opposite is what we have with the class.  A leader is needed.  Everyone wants to have their own opinions and there's alot of people who are sitting in the back.  Not enough of a leader bringing them to the fore"
   
• "The monday morning class is a studio class where you do a project the Thursday is a studio centered around all the subjects"
   
  "The marble race is part of the Portfolio.  There is no way around it.  Why do it?  Because we live in a world where we have to work together.  I think that as a general class we've got the chops to pull it off"

NOTES:

1. There were a lot of people agreeing with each other which is fine in a meeting but rather redundent in text form so I've condensed it down a bit - Just in case you were looking for your bit and couldn't find it
2. Starting from the ceiling each group can have a drop of 200mm before passing it on to the next group)
3. I believe that a few groups were talking about doing this after the meeting.  If anyone wants to merge groups then talk to the tutors
4. If we did this we might need to merge several teams)
5. Alas!  It's part of the portfolio so this doesn't appear to be a real option

LINKS:

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 1

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 2

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 3