My Programming Media 2 class (it will be called Interactive Media 2 next year) has finished its Goldbergian Voting Machine. The project was an experiment in democracy carried out by a group of nineteen students who worked together for eight weeks to produce a fully functional voting machine comprised of nineteen individual modules. The modules communicated through either physical or electrical signals which carried a vote through each of the modules until it reached the final destination where it was archived.

The project brief follows:

The cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1893 - 1970) is know for his drawings of absurd, complicated machines that perform simple tasks. His name has become synonymous with these artifacts. The Merriam-Webster dictionary states:

Main Entry: Rube Gold·berg
Variant(s): also Rube Gold·berg·i·an
Function: adjective
Etymology: Reuben (Rube) L. Goldberg died 1970 American cartoonist
: accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply <a kind of Rube Goldberg contraption…with five hundred moving parts — L. T. Grant>; also : characterized by such complex means

The Wikipedia entry for “Rube Goldberg Machine” provides a good summary of how his ideas have influenced popular culture. Type “rube goldberg” as a keyword at YouTube or Google Video to see some hobby projects.

While the mechanical complexity of Goldberg’s machines has survived into the twenty-first century, the satirical component of his work has not. Goldberg’s machines are viewed most interestingly as a metaphors for absurd mechanisms within society and inherent in technological progress. One of the first uses of the adjective “Rube Goldbergian” was within the Congressional Record. Lawmakers referred to the opposing parties projects such as the “New Deal” and the “Great Society” disparagingly as “Rube Goldbergian.” (1) For example, a Rube Goldbergian scheme for reducing taxes. Clark Kinnarid, in his introduction to Rube Goldberg vs The Machine Age says that Goldberg regarded his “‘inventions’ as manifestations of a one-man insurrection against needlessly multifarious gadgetry of the machine age that enslaves man instead of freeing him from non-rewarding labor.” (2)

The technologies that appear in Goldberg’s work are from his era: automobiles, electric fans, gramophones, bicycle pumps, oil lamps, hand guns, radios. What are the “needless multifarious gadgetry” of the information age. What technologies would comprise the contemporary Goldbergian device? Possibly a mobile phone, keyboard, light sensor, laser printer, RFID card, video game, brand-name products, ASCII characters?

The Goldbergian context provides an excellent foundation for learning about the concepts of interactivity and the technologies required to make interactive projects. During the next eight weeks, we will complete a contemporary Goldberg machine. Each member of the class will build one component of the device. Each section will receive a signal and transmit that signal to the next section. In addition to building the project, each member of the class will be a part of one documentation committee: video, photography, design, DVD, web, and writing.

In reference to the origins of the word and the recent voting machine debacles, our Goldbergian device will be a voting machine. What are the many problems with voting machines and the American political system? How can our Goldbergian device refer to this context?

Notes:
1. Rube Goldberg, Rube Goldberg vs The Machine Age (New York: Hasting House, 1968), p. viii
2. Ibid. p. vii

This was honestly the most intense course I’ve taught at UCLA. It focused on process and learning new skills more than refined production, but the end result was impressive in many ways. I think more than anything else, it was a complex social process. I congratulate all of the participants: Kyle Audick, Jonathan Bobrow, Jono Brandel, Richard Caceres, Erik Carlson, Danni Chen, Chris Chernoff, Megan Daalder, Gleb Denisov, Patrick Gilliland, Mary Huang, Joe Liao, Fei Liu, Brian Miller, Ben Perkins, Michael Sun, Emerson Taymor, Patrick Tierney, and Steven Ziadie. And it would not have been possible without ace teaching assistant Michael Kontopoulos.

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