Contraption maker dog5/31/2023 Just watching and talking to him as he worked through the challenges of the contraption taught us a lot about workign on automata. While in the time he was here, Paul didn't get to finish the machine, but that wasn't really the point. The only problem for the dog would be figuring out how to use a can opener to get the meal. In a finished version, multiple cans of dog food would be queued up in a rack and would get released one by one. The can of dog food rolls down a ramp and hits the pendulum, starting the system again. The little triangle piece at the top moves over the lever when the arm swings fast, but as the motion of the pendulum slows down, the piece catches and releases a can of dog food (simulated in the prototype by a metal cylinder). The machine starts off with a nudge by a hungry canine that starts a pendulum swinging. Paul's project ended up being a sort of perpetual dog food dispenser. And although we hadn't thought that he would make anything specific while visiting, after a few hours in our workshop, he started messing about with some scrap wood in the corner of the room. He brought some amazing automata to show us, was interviewed by Dale Dougherty as a featured maker at open make: trash (although he has nothing to do with the theme, we couldn't pass up the chance), and worked with Walter and the group to help develop the trash automata activity. Paul is part of the Cabaret Mechanical Theater, a group of automata builders who have inspired our thinking for many years. Paul works and lives in Cornwall, England so it was an absolute treat that he said yes to coming all the way out to San Francisco and the Exploratorium for the first time. In the week before the last open make, we were thrilled to have automata artist residence in the learning studio.
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