For the past while in Flight, we’ve been working on a Rube Golberg machine that showcases metaphorical and steampunk elements. The machine represents a revolution that we chose, in my groups case being the Easter Revolution. This machine’s appearance had to follow a steampunk aesthetic, and had to for the most part, work. 
 

To begin our machine planning process, we created a timeline for our revolution. This timeline not only had to have events from the revolution on it, but also metaphors from the events that we would incorporate physically into our machine AND how these events followed Crane Brinton’s theory. This timeline took my group a while to complete, and we struggled with it but in the end it worked out. We found choosing metaphors to be a bit difficult, because some of the things we came up with wouldn’t actually function if we tried to make them (because even though things like laser guns sound cool, I’m not the type of person who has the skills to make one.) The theory part was simple, and we colour coated different stages and then highlighted events so you could really see what was where in his theory, if that makes any sense. 

 

Once we were finished our timeline, we had to create a diagram to show how we planned to make our machine come alive. Our diagram displayed all the different things we would use in our machine. Items such as potatoes, pipes, funnels, a lightbulb, wood and more were included in our plans. 

 

After the diagram, we put our plans into action. Creating our machine has been a bit difficult because of some engineering issues, but it’s rolling smoothly at the moment. It’s been difficult to figure out how our diagram is going to work in reality, because of electricity and just overall design flaws. We still have to create the electric circuit and paint the base so it looks better, but we’re on our way and I’m kind of confident it’s going to work, as long as we stay focused. 

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​​​​​​​​​​​Another aspect to the project is the iMovie to explain our revolution and machine. To go along with the movie, we created a storyboard to guide our ideas. This storyboard had to include lots of detail and imagery to really show how we would put the video together. We all worked on this at different times, but this is my contribution. It’s still in the early stages of being good and as you can see the dialogue and information on it isn’t very detailed. 

 

Now with just a couple days until the first draft is due, my group is honestly scrambling! I feel like we will work our hardest the next few classes to really make this machine as great as it can be. 

 Until next time,
My Pretty Blog