For the last several weeks the Foundation Unit students have been working away on making “forgeries” of the machines of sculptor Arthur Ganson. These machines, similar in many ways to the work of Jean Tinguely and the Eames’ “do Nothing Machines” do just that: nothing. Except that they also do everything simultaneously. Ganson’s machines are magical; they are designed and constructed to produce a visceral, emotional response from the viewer. Ganson has described himself best by saying that “I put my ideas and passions into objects and am always learning how to speak with my hands.” The Foundation students have been doggedly faithful to this ethic, and seem to have really turned a corner this past couple of weeks. While their current machines are admittedly in a herky-jerky state of being (most of them have simply thrashed themselves to death in the course of their design and manufacture) the learning in the class is palpable.  Today we discussed how to shove the project forward, and the students put forward many, many fantastic observations concerning the next step toward the end of the semester. So even though the machines are not (yet) in a perfectly working state, here is a non-comprehensive short list of the themes they have decided to carry forward:

1. Work as a investment
2. Who you can count on, and for what
3. Adaptability and Agility
4. A “yes, and” approach to collaborative work versus a “yes, but” approach
5. A broad yet efficient use of resources, whether physical or otherwise
6. Planning the plan
7. working alone while simultaneously working together
8. disengage in order to reengage
9. Attention to detail
10. Time management
11. The success of failing (“Failing forward”)
12.  Rolling with the punches, or rather, “what to do when Risk Management pays a visit”
13. Plug and chug: iterative work
14. Multiple streams of exploration
15. The art of the Tinker
16. Material creativity
17. Anticipation as a motivator
18. Testing beyond imagination
19. Documentation: write everything down
20. Delegation and dependence.

Now that is a pretty good day in studio.

Oh, and if you click on the thumbnail above you will open a gallery of images of the students process and prototype work over the past two weeks. Hopefully soon we will a little more “formal” documentation of the working machines, but I gotta go to France first.