Introduction
Team of 36 Industrial design students and each had to create a dynamic, mechanical object that were then linked together to form a single seamless kinetic sculpture. This mechanical cabaret was displayed at the Heath Robinson Museum, London.
The Design
A wooden catapult with two sets of folding hand fans. The first fan takes in the enegry from point A passes it to the second fan which further passes on the enegry to point B, in order for the chain reaction of to continue and perform a unified mechanical cabaret.
The Design Process
The ideology of the project is a collaboration based yet there is an individualistic design element to showcase every student’s creative outlook. In order for the chain reaction of the machines to carry on, all adjascent machines in the entire circuit must be designed in collaboration and should be effecient enough to intake the energy from A and pass it on top B succesfully.
01
Assigned Spaces
There were 36 design students and everyone was assigned a number. We had to collaborate with the adjacent numbers before and after us, in order to create a seemless kinetic sculpture.
02
Concept Sketching
I wanted to create a machine that translates the energy from one machine to the other but do that whilst leaving a visually attractive show for the audience. For this reason I chose to add the colourful folding fans in two diffierent sections of the catapult. The opening and closing of the fans made the process of energy transfer visible and attractive.
03
Agile Prototyping
After having designed the concept on paper I started off with creating rough workable prototypes with cardboard, rubber, pencil and plastic bottle to understand the functionality of the catapult. This gave me the confidence to move forward after having seen how every mechanical part of my machine operates.
04
Wood Workshop (Making)
The catapult was made in the Central Saint Martin’s well equipped wood workshop. All the individual parts of the machine were customised and carefully handcrafted in order to achieve the desired aesthetic and fucntionality.
05
Collaborative Testing
There were significant amount of changes that had to be made in my design after having done the test runs with the machines adjascent to me in order for the mechanical cabaret to run smoothly without any interruptions.
The Final Exhibition
Heath Robinson Museum, London
The exhibition was displayed to inspire the young primary schoool students and give them an exposure of what industrial design education has to offer. If you wish to see how these kids enjoyed the show click on the link below :
Cetral Saint Martins // The Team // MA Industrial Design
