Sep 15

7×7: 2: How To Put Sauce On Your Pasta With A Manually Operated Mechanical Arm

Incorporating an artifice into a mundane daily task #2

Introduction: We have been reading a lot about technology “taking over” and about the “artificial” increasingly blending with our definition of the “natural.” I wanted to play on the idea of how our every day, mundane tasks can be taken over by a machine or some kind of man-made devise. My goal is to create 7 objects in 7 days that somehow transform my routine tasks into a machine controlled activity.

Constraints:

-I must make a tangible object using something that is in my apartment. No budget!

-The final object must be incorporated into one of my mundane daily tasks.

-There must be a video documentation of me using the object.

Project 2: How To Put Sauce On Your Pasta With A Manually Operated Mechanic Arm

In continuation with my theme of an unnecessary artifice simulating a human action or movement, I created a manually operated mechanical arm with a pulley system. I tried to recreate the anatomy and the movement of an elbow and wrist using man-made objects.

Result: YouTube video below + screen shot of video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcX_pIMrOu8

Materials used and their limitations:

I once again used pieces from an erector set, elastic bands, Jcrew bracelet, wires and a spoon. Obviously, this device does not work as well as the actual arm and wrist. I had very little control over the jerkiness of the mechanical arm. At one point I almost splattered my camera lens with tomato sauce. This was a very fun piece to make and to use once it was completed.

Galina Rybatsky

Permanent link to this article: http://interface2011.coin-operated.com/2011/09/7x7-2-how-to-put-sauce-on-your-pasta-with-a-manually-operated-mechanic-arm/

Leave a Reply