New Rube Ideas

I presented my Rube Goldberg device on Tuesday, although it wasn't exactly a device. The project reveals the Rube Goldberg machine in everyday life. I created a poster (below) with all of the photos I took in my trek around the city (to trace hello on the map). The process highlights the connections between people and their interactions at each of the sixteen points. In phase two (this poster is phase one) I will track the life story of the goods and services that are exchanged at each of these points. It's fascinating to think of the effect even small exchanges can make on people's lives.

I plan on staging a street intervention by placing posters at strategic points on a map, providing a website for people to go and tell the story of their recent transaction. This project requires participation in order to work, so maybe I will also send out emails to ask people to participate as well. Oh I could start a new Ning network, but some sort of platform that encourages interaction would work.

I just started envisioning this project taking off. People submit their latest interaction with another human, and how that changed their day in some way. For example, I just ate a great meal and took an extra long walk. On that walk I ran into someone I haven't seen in ten years, etc. I need to push the storytelling aspect of it, which is how I'm challenging myself lately. I could involve everyone on my facebook and twitter accounts if I wanted to, instead of restricting it to the posters on the street and word of mouth. The website should have a mapping technology that creates a beautiful design with each point entered. Not like a literal google map but something more abstract and human.

For the street intervention, I will scale the posters down and make them more noticable. Some of the circular photos will be takeaway cards with the website on the back. To be continued...