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In the end, I really appreciate to have a chance to rethink of design to me and to have another way of dealing with the projects. The feedback not only from Andy but also from peers always give me a direction when I get lost or stuck. I think what I’ve learnt is much more than I thought, it is not  just design, it is more like an evolution of thoughts. It can not only be used in design but also in our life. After all, mess is good, mess is more.

The relationship between illustration and the machine is the nail polish on the water surface is like a person’s life controlled by something (machine) but suddenly the a turning point (ball) happened. Therefore, the person (the pattern on the water) has changed. The turning point could destroy some beautiful pattern on the surface but it also create new pattern as well. It shows that things come with two angles and it depends on how you look it.

Here is the stop motion that demonstrates how my machine works. I prepared all the materials I need in advance. The syringes are for inserting nail polish into tubes. I set the tubes higher so that except for the push from syringes, the gravity also helps me to push nail polish forward. There was a problem that the tube is hard so I can’t really bend it so that I need to move them (include the white box) all together while I move the y axis. After taking photos, I clean up the mess and my hands turn into a sticky mess. The photo of my hand was what it looked like after I spent half an hour washing it but it still looked terrible. For, editing, I use photoshop to make my stop motion and there were some problems with exporting the video. In the end, I think everything was quite under control.

The first short clip is nearly half done for my machine and it is demonstrating that it can move freely in x and y axis and also shows that it is bale to stand by it self. The second image is the machine I used to cut the aluminium into size. I build them up to be a frame without screen and use angles to be their feet. The difficult part is those 3 little things on the wood board. I tried to use some screen to make a windmill but it didn’t work out since it is too soft. Then I tried to use a nut that I found in factory and some left materials to make a windmill which is working out. For my sieve, I turned out just use one layer of bottle lid since it will be easier for me. I used drill machine to make holes on the bottle lid. For the last one (I forgot to take some photos in process), I only used a normal straw since I couldn’t find the long one everywhere. I used a thickness of screen as basement also make it higher and insert little aluminium sheets and put a tape on it to make it stable. Those aluminium sheets are for passing down the nail polish. The things that let the tube through is another useful left materials I found from our factory which can stabilise my tubes and make them higher to drip nail polish. I’m quite happy with what I have done so far. 😊

After doing some research of those key words, I don’t think I can build something like that on my own in a limited time since it is an area that I am not familiar with.

Those sketches are based on what I learnt from the printer I broke down. I need at least two sets of the motors, rubber bands and gears to control my x and y axis. I was thinking to use 3 motors for each side but then I need to worry about if there are moving at the same speed so I just go with 2 motors. Other then that, I need to cut some part of the frame off so that there is enough room for me to set up motors and places to put batteries. However, it will be difficult for me to cut off only certain parts since the cutting machine our factory has can only cut off the whole section. How can I solve this problem? 🤔

I luckily got a printer that is out of order so I decided to break it down since the way it works is similar to my machine but the differences is it only move in x axis and the paper move deal with y axis. I broke the outside shell first and used some tools to break the inside parts into pieces. The last image shows the part that is similar to my machine. It was run by a motor, rubber band and few gears. Breaking down a printer helps me understand how a motor, some gears, rubber band and other materials work together to run in x axis. Also, maybe I can use some of the gears or rubber band from this printer in my project 3.

This is a short clip of a sliding movement which inspired me of using the frame of a fly screen to be part of my machine that controls x and y axis. This inspiration came into my mind when I was working in the fly screen factory. I think I should take the advantage of having the resources to build my project 3 since the frame of the fly screen also slides in x and y axis. Therefore, I quickly grab some left materials and cut them into size and puzzle them up into a small version of fly screen but without the screen part so that it could move freely in y axis. Then, I put in half part of the handle so that it can move freely in x axis. I am not 100% sure if it can help my project but I think this could be a good start. 

MSCN Must Have: Tracks & Remote Control (Joystick & Buttons) & Sliding Elements Should Have: Nail Polish & Tubes & Stopper & Handle & Windmill & Sieve & Slides & Bars for passing/dripping Could Have: Needle (to draw pattern on water surface) & Pen Never Have: Deep Water

Ver. 3 Here is a short clip of part of my ver. 3 prototype. It shows how my machine works in x (left & right) and y (forward & backward) axis. I have refined it into sliding track based on the review from last prototype. The sliding thing I move first, there will be 3 little devices on the top of it. Because of the scale issue, I did another video to demonstrate how those devices work.

Here are my inspirations for my ver. 3. The original idea was not creative enough and some people suggest me that it is cool but not interesting enough so that I did more research and looked back what we learnt from those frameworks and one of them that caught my eyes was Jean Ttinguely’s work. His works inspired my idea of a waterpark since there are so many things spinning, turning and working at once just like a waterpark. Building a small waterpark in my machine to make marks on water surface is much more creative and interesting to me. The other idea inspire me was a marble artist, Mimi Schleicher. She prints large piece of paper or fabric by this technique. The last one was Dave Kaufman artwork by pouring the paints from same spot again and again and dry it. It has a similar art style by dripping but a little bit different from marble art. I really like the feedback from Andy and other peers that was to keep your minds open, keep testing and designing and always look back when you get stuck otherwise you can’t see other possibilities from it. Because of their suggestion, my project become much more interesting then it was.

CNC Research Here is a clip that I found on youtube about DIY an Arduino CNC and it inspires me to make my machine working in a sliding way so that nothing would get drawn into anything. However, I found this is related to coding which is another unfamiliar area for me. I’m not sure if I am able to achieve this. Here are some more link that I found (note: some of them are in mandarin 😝): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ-TZvFpY58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMsEzNwPFjQ http://wukcsoft.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/cnc-diy-arch.html http://www.diycomm.com/wp-content/uploads/file/DIY_mini_CNC_router.pdf https://makerdiwo.com/archives/338 https://makerdiwo.com/archives/2826

Ver. 2 This is my ver. 2 prototype. I have refined some of the problems I found based on my ver. 1 prototype. I made a handle at the back of my printing board and also stoppers to stop it and a better tracks to run. However, I found there are some more problems such as the way of track works. In this case, it is rolling on the track but the tube will get drawn into the bar which should not be working theoretically. I should change it to sliding on the track so this problem would be solved. I will base on this and refine it in my ver. 3.

Ver. 1 This is my ver. 1 prototype and it is based on my first sketch. It is very rough and simple so that it did not work very well. There were some problems that I did not see when I was doing my first sketch such as, there should be a handle on the back of the printing board and a stopper to stop the moving carriage runs over the range...etc. I can refine those problem for my next prototype.

This is another machine Andy show us in the class. It is run by two record machines connecting with arms and a pen to draw. It is based on different speed from those record machines to change the angles. Unlike the result of the machine draws by songs, this result has more pattern.

This is a machine that create marks by strength of voice from a song. The image is the result. If we play the same song, the result will be pretty much the same. This is extraordinary! It looks like the machine is a little bit out of control but actually it is doing his work properly.