GEEKERY: Over-Engineering FTW!
Rube Goldberg Machines – because turning on your toaster should take no less than 50 steps and 10 minutes to accomplish!
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist best known for his zany invention cartoons. He was born in San Francisco on the 4th of July, 1883 – and graduated from U. Cal Berkeley with a degree in engineering. His first job at the San Francisco Chronicle led to early success, but it wasn’t until he moved to NYC and began working for Hearst publications that he became a household name. Rube Goldberg is the only person ever to be listed in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as an adjective. It’s estimated that he did a staggering 50,000 cartoons in his lifetime.
Those cartoons have inspired a lot of over-engineered, one task machines that are a heck of a lot of fun to watch…
Joseph Herschel is a kinetic artist based in Brooklyn… he talks about his work with Erik Olsen of the NYT here.
2D House has created several machines for advertising projects… you can check them out here.
Bob Partington is an inventor and artist that’s created fun gadgets like a secret graffiti briefcases, a 300-pound garlic crusher, and a 200-pound tomato slicer. He takes a few minutes to talk about the process behind his slow machine here.
Cog was used to promote the 7th generation of Honda Accord in 2003. The spot was directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, and built with a large team of engineers and artists. Rumor has it that the 606th take of the continuous shot was the one that made it to televisions across the UK.
Melvin the Machine takes the idea a bit further and passively interacts with its audience – it takes pictures and video, and creates its own march in the form of posters and t-shirts, during its process.
Have any Rube Goldberg machines you really like? Share in the comments!
