This past month we have been working tirelessly to finish a project representing a revolution.

In the first week of the project we found out what we were doing, we were doing Rube Goldberg machines based on ancient revolutions, and we were doing the Meiji Revolution. Our first task was to get familiar with our revolutions so we made an infographic. After that, we got straight into building our Rube Goldberg machines. The first part of our machine was where a car would knock over books, and that represented the naval warships of America forcing the Japanese to open their ports. After that, we made a pulley system representing the rise of the new emperor Meiji and the fall of the old emperor. Once we finished building the pulley, we moved on to the dominos, the dominos represented the wars and conflicts the Meiji went through. Once the dominos were done, we made a “wrecking ball” representing the government swinging into new ideas, The wrecking ball hits a green ball that goes to my part. My part was a lego old style Japanese temple, which the ball roles through, then falls into a modern building representing the modernization of Japan. After that there is a ramp that represents the struggles that Japan went through. Then, a ball would roll through it and hit a rock which would turn on a light, representing the new ideas of Japan.

Once the exhibition started, the first few times it didnt work, however it started getting more consistent. I was the one setting it up most times so I was getting tired near the end of the exhibition. I think overall this project was a huge success because I like building physical products and we got to do that for a month straight. This was my favourite part of PLP so far.

Documentary