Last night, we threw a giant collective chain reaction as one of the main activities for the Exploratorium’s adults-only monthly After Dark event, themed Heartworks.
As we’ve done in the past, we chose a theme for inspiration; in this case, “love” seemed the clear choice. Then we collected objects, mechanisms, toys, knick-knacks, and doo-dads that somehow could relate to the theme, and asked participants to build a contraption that metaphorically expressed some aspect of love. We arranged tables to make the shape of a giant heart, and within their section, visitors could build whatever they wanted, as long as it triggered the next “love machine” in the sequence.
We spent the previous couple of weeks preparing for the event, planning, collecting materials, and most importantly working on a stupendous grand finale: the mascots for the evening were a rat and his duckie lover, so we made giant cardboard versions of them, and had them come together powered by a turntable playing Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing!
We set some elements on the tables before we invited visitors in, and gave them a challenge that was meant to serve as inspiration: to somehow incorporate that element into their contraption. This table had some plastic army men to represent “love as a battlefield.”
Some elements were more playful and kinetic, like this dancing toy.
Some visitors came specifically to participate in our chain reaction, and even brought their own love-themed elements to add to the collective piece.
They took on the very last section, a very important task, since it has to trigger the finale!
Akiko struggled for a while with this mechanism, somehow it just wouldn’t work the way she intended. This caused some strong emotional reactions…
Apprehension during the final test…
…followed by sheer joy at its success!
Mr. And Mrs. Potato Head ready to kiss.
Facilitation is crucial in an activity like this, and it truly is an art, since we often do not know which problems we’ll be presented with: they depend almost entirely on the imagination and goals of the participants. So, very often, we end up becoming co-thinkers and collaborators, rather than anything approaching a traditional “teacher” role.
Problem solving on the fly while tinkering!
The evening was a blast, and the final chain reaction run one of our most successful ever! We’ll be posting a video of the event — including the spectacular finale — next week, as well as behind the scenes “making-of” specials.
Meanwhile, from all of us in the Tinkering Studio, enjoy the full slideshow of the event!
