Oct 4, 2023 

Idea Proposal: The scenario of Christine’s auction

Characters: auctioneer, hammer, a bidder

 

Material: wood, clay, metal wire

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Oct 18, 2023

First, I recap the scenario which shows the auction, one auctioneer, falling the hammer to make a deal, and one bidder, lifting the number paddle to bid.

Based on last week’s feedback, I added one more layer as a bearing in the middle of the cams and scenario’s platform to constrain the moving rods in a relatively limited path. 

As the result of thinking about how to make the characters in the most effective way, I sketch each component of the characters in Illustrators in advance which can give relative guidance when I making it even though practice is the only way to test assumptions.

I prioritized the making of the platform as the last step since the relative distance between each character is fixed, the platform’ size should depend on the whole scenario to avoid over-big or over-small. Thus the validations of movement are finished on my cardboard prototype. 

 

Midway through making the characters, I found that there 2 linkages in each arm, and more effort had to be made on it. I noticed that foam clay, which I prepared to use for the head, could be a good material for making the nut or block. In my case, it’s a good way to simplify the making since my characters are small and leverage the materials I have. 

   

One thing I want to challenge in this project is the relationship between the time difference, while the falling of a hammer once another hand should shake three times. Even though I tried to adopt the different shapes of cams to achieve the time difference, the relationship is not apparent. The gears might be a more precise solution for this. But in general, I’m satisfied with the assignment. 

 Final Prototyping:

Since my poetry theme revolves around time and cycles, I want to create a ball drop system. For the past two weeks, I’ve been prototyping an elevator that needs to transport a ball from the lowest point to the highest.

I have found several mechanical methods that could work. One is based on Archimedes’ principle, or using a circular turntable OR a belt conveyor. These methods are quite straightforward. I’ve been exploring other possibilities and then I came across this toy, which looks really dynamic! So, I’m inclined to try this approach, allowing the ball to ascend level by level!

Archimedes Principle                Rotating circle                                          Belt

 

Theoretically, it’s feasible, but because the only active component has multiple steps, achieving the back-and-forth movement of the ball between the active and stationary steps would require extensive testing and calibration/adjustment. I don’t think this is an effective approach. Firstly, using a cam to control all the movements is very challenging and risky. Secondly, the more steps there are, the larger the base needs to be, and I don’t want it to become a mountain. Therefore, I have decided to abandon this approach.

However, I still learned something very important from this, such as how to design steps that allow the ball to roll to its intended destination by gravity.

Then I found this video where each cam drives a step, so the motion path can be very precise. Trying to work with this logic will definitely work, but it also has the issue of increasing floor space as more steps are added. So, how to effectively use vertical space is a problem.

This reminded me of some department stores, which, to increase customer flow and guide customer to stores they had no intention of visiting, thereby stimulating potential spending, have stairs located on both sides. At each floor, customers may need to walk from left to right to catch the elevator on the other side to the next floor.

So, I came up with this idea: put elevators in the front and back, and give a slight slope to the side passageways. When the ball is transported to a floor, it slides down to the entrance of the next (back) elevator.

Demo:

 

Paper Automaton

 

The mouth is split, cute!

 

Nesting for a Nail clippers

measure it with calipers

 

Based on my previous experience with Cura, I estimate the offset to be 0.2mm. The wall thickness for nesting is set to 1.2mm because the nail clippers are made of metal, which is very hard, so the wall thickness of the nesting should not be too thin.

The final piece

Demo：

 

 

Idea 1:

 source

This is a piece by contemporary Taiwanese poet 蔡仁伟Cai Renwei, known for his concise and straightforward poetry.

Keywords: florist’s, flower, bloom

Material: Wood, acrylic, 3d printing, metal wire, clay

Mechanisms: linkage, cam, retractable structure

Sketch: 

Idea 2:

source

This is a piece by contemporary Chinese poet 隔花人 Gehuaren. Her works mainly depict the small joys of life.

Keywords: Restart, watermelon, code

Material: Wood, acrylic, 3d printing, metal wire, clay

Mechanisms: multiple tapes with cams

Sketch：

 

Idea 3: ❤️❤️❤️

source

This is a poem by the Song Dynasty poet Xue Yu. The poem depicts a winter scene, where thick snow covers the rooftop as if blanketing the entire house. A monk resides here.

The poem conveys that, despite the vast expanse of time and the countless cycles of birth and death that we all must inevitably experience, there will always be a lasting beacon, which is your true heart, shining for you throughout the ages.

Keywords: time, countless cycles, beacon

Material: wood, acrylic, 3d printing, rod,  glass/magnetic ball

Mechanisms: Barrel cam, Archimedes’ principle, linkages, cams

Sketch:

REASON OF FAVORITE

Finding diverse poetry has been challenging for me because I have my own long-standing poetic preference. They write about specific things, but they actually express grand abstract ideas. So, rather than constructing a figurative scenario, I prefer to convey the content of the poetry through dynamics.

1 MONTH PLAN

3rd NOV- 9th NOV	Design. Prototyping the elevator part.
10th NOV- 16th NOV	Continue prototyping the other parts. Expectation: the 1st version of whole piece
17th NOV- 30th NOV	Iterated version of whole piece, ensure the success of mechanisms.

 

 

First, I recap the scenario which shows the auction, one auctioneer, falling the hammer to make a deal, and one bidder, lifting the number paddle to bid.

Based on last week’s feedback, I added one more layer as a bearing in the middle of the cams and scenario’s platform to constrain the moving rods in a relatively limited path. 

As the result of thinking about how to make the characters in the most effective way, I sketch each component of the characters in Illustrators in advance which can give relative guidance when I making it even though practice is the only way to test assumptions.

I prioritized the making of the platform as the last step since the relative distance between each character is fixed, the platform’ size should depend on the whole scenario to avoid over-big or over-small. Thus the validations of movement are finished on my cardboard prototype. 

 

Midway through making the characters, I found that there 2 linkages in each arm, and more effort had to be made on it. I noticed that foam clay, which I prepared to use for the head, could be a good material for making the nut or block. In my case, it’s a good way to simplify the making since my characters are small and leverage the materials I have. 

   

One thing I want to challenge in this project is the relationship between the time difference, while the falling of a hammer once another hand should shake three times. Even though I tried to adopt the different shapes of cams to achieve the time difference, the relationship is not apparent. The gears might be a more precise solution for this. But in general, I’m satisfied with the assignment.