My context was all about cause and effect and the tipping point between the primitive cause resulting in the final effect.
This lead to the exploration of the accordion effect and the butterfly effect– which covered an area where a small change can create an unexpected outcome.
I first started experimenting with little set ups of chain reaction events to come to an unpredicted effect or outcome. I did this with illustration.
The first was meant to be a planned system which created a “chance event” ex. spinning of bike tires gets tangled in string. The string lifts bread and drops it into a toaster. Again– this wasn’t meant to be accidental.
The next was more of a chance event chain reaction: a phone vibrates knocking loose change off the ledge and onto a kettle switch. The kettle switch is turned on and the water boils.
After was another planned event of chain reactions. A system is in place to knock over items to result in a napkin moving across the face after eating–again this wasn’t meant to be a real chance event.
The last drawing in this set is one of a sink tap being left on. The dripping of water from a tea towel tips over a bin. The contents of the bin spill out, knocking some cat food off of the counter. The result is a fed cat.
After these drawings I wanted to illustrate the concepts through film. I ended up making three films.
After these I started to think of causal changes in linguistics and what comes from these changes.
I created a list that started out with “big cat” and ended with “black plague”
This was done by passing the list around and only changing one word at a time. With this list i ended up making another book.
(will post big cat black plague book images later)
So after my tutorial on friday matt mentioned a railroad switch at a railroad junction. This small device can send you down one of two paths. So I’ve come to “designing causal disruption devices” which are meant to set you on a different path than anticipated.
I then drew up some more prototype illustrations for my trajectory.
The first being a colour coded door lock you have to align the correct colours before being allowed to open the door. This effects time and could potentially effect you being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.
A variation on this is timed locks-where the door locks and unlocks on timed intervals- again effects timing.
Next is a question cupboard- access to cupboards relies on your ability to answer questions. Right answer grants you access to the right side and wrong answer grants you access to the left side of the cupboard.
Another idea is unlabeled and alternating switches. You have set amounts of time to learn which operated what before it switches. This creates unexpected results.
Another is mixed assembly- which includes a box of disassembled parts, based on which set of instructions you receive you will assemble one of two things. ex. lamp or food processor.
A rotating door in your house which creates a new path to travel through every time.
After this trajectory I planned on showing and documenting more through film and split screen to show this idea of setting you on a path that starts at point a but can end at numerous different outcomes through causal disruption devices.
After the prototype presentation I might be going back to the original cause and effect machines but am currently awaiting further feedback.