When I was little, I had a particular fascination with Rube Goldberg machines. I doubt I was alone—after all, what child could resist the delight of watching fans, golf balls, and broomsticks come to life? Tipping, rolling, falling, lighting on fire, inflating, spilling over, and tumbling at the just the right speed to animate one another: it’s a dizzying, delightful ballet of objects that I think children and adults alike find irresistible. Here at Anthology, we love making stop-motion films for the same reason: the joy of bringing to life everyday objects and materials.
I had nearly forgotten about Rube Goldberg machines until I came across the work of Brooklyn-based Joseph Herscher. The film above is of a project from the 2011 Venice Biennale called La Macchina Botanica. The piece, which stands over 40 feet long, was created by Herscher with the help of 40 local kids, a translator, and several assistants. My favorite part is hearing the anticipatory gasps and shouts from the audience—will it work??
Herscher’s pieces are a pleasant reminder that over-complication can sometimes be wonderful, machines need not always be useful, and that inanimate objects can do amazing things—with a little help from humans. You can see more of his work and find out about the Rube Goldberg workshops he occasionally hosts by visiting his site.
{Film by Joseph Herscher, found via The New York Times}
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Love it…reminded me of playing Mousetrap as a child…just a bigger and greener version.
I love these sort of inventions. Not sure if you get the Discovery Channel where you are, but the Duo behind Myth Busters has a new series along this line where two teams compete to create large scale contraptions related to a “theme”. Each is given an article or two that is the same to incorporate and a period of time (not sure what it is) and then of course they run the contraptions and a Team wins based on who knows what, but it fun to watch and anticipate with them as to wether it will work or not!
So delightful! I also loved the music.
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